Literacy acquires fragrance products maker Ashleigh & Burwood

Ero Partsakoulaki
05 August 2022

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Literacy Capital, a UK-listed closed-end investment company, has acquired UK-based home fragrance manufacturer Ashleigh & Burwood.

Tony Buffin will join the business at completion as non-executive chairman, according to a press release. He is currently the chief executive of The Tesca Group, a British textiles and seat components manufacturer for the automotive industry. He previously led Holland & Barrett as CEO and served as CFO at Travis Perkins and Coles Group in Australia.

In addition, Jed Kenrick will join the company as Chief Operating Officer, moving from his current role as a partner at K2+Co Consulting. He will help to scale-up operations at Ashleigh & Burnwood, having previously served in similar roles at Dyson and Travis Perkins.

The London-headquartered GP, which has a market capitalization of GBP 244m as of today (5 August), generally invests in companies with EBITDA between GBP 1m-GBP 5m, according to Unquote Data. The firm is focused on investing in small, growing UK businesses and prefers to make minority and majority investments, as well as MBOs and MBIs.

Literacy Capital is set to continue the company's growth by broadening brand awareness with an increased focus on sales and marketing and an opportunity to scale further via bolt-on acquisitions, according to the press release.

The transaction represents its twentieth platform investment completed since the inception of the fund in September 2017, its fourth since the fund was listed on the London Stock Exchange in June 2021, and the second of this calendar year, according to the press release.

The fund has also supported its portfolio companies in completing five bolt-on acquisitions this calendar year, including Techpoint, previously Vanilla Group. The business completed its third acquisition in May, a Somerset-based leading global supplier of frequency components, Golledge, according to the press release.

Company
Founded in 1993 by father and son John and Andrew Nettleton, Ashleigh & Burwood manufactures branded and white-label fragrance products including candles, room sprays, and reed diffusers, predominantly for the home. Its products are made in its base in West Molesey, Surrey, and around 40% of sales are international, with a strong and growing presence in Europe, the US and Japan.