Beringea and Piton sell Watchfinder to Richemont

Kenny Wastell
18 July 2018

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Beringea and Piton Capital have sold their stakes in UK secondhand watch retailer Watchfinder to Swiss luxury consumer goods company Richemont.

Under the vendors' tenure, the company has expanded its number of bricks and mortar stores and service centres from five sites in south-east England to 10 locations across London, Birmingham, Leeds and Kent.

According to a statement, Watchfinder trebled its turnover between 2015 – the year after Beringea and Piton first backed the company – and 2018.

Beringea was invested in Watchfinder via its ProVen VCTs.

Previous funding
Beringea and Piton invested $10m in Watchfinder in 2014 in order to fund the acquisition of more watches, the launch of a multimedia marketing campaign and the development of the company's servicing centre. The round also provided liquidity for existing shareholders and saw each investor contribute an equal sum.

Company
Established in 2002 and headquartered in Maidstone, Kent, Watchfinder sells secondhand luxury watches. It trades through its e-commerce site and bricks and mortar stores. The company also operates a servicing centre in Maidstone for repairs and testing.

In the year ending in March 2017, Watchfinder generated a turnover of £86.7m with EBITDA of £5.8m, according to publicly available documents. This represented a 43% increase in sales and saw the company increase its operating profit from £3.3m to £5.5m.

People
Beringea – Malcolm Moss (founding partner).

Advisers
Vendor – GCA Altium (corporate finance); Jones Day (legal).
Acquirer – Lazard (corporate finance); Slaughter & May (legal).