BGF invests £3.9m in Magmatic

BGF acquired a minority stake in the business, believed to be somewhere between 10-40%.

The funding will be used to develop new products and expand the company internationally, with a plan to open a US office by the end of 2013, according to HSBC, which separately provided a debt facility for the business.

The company also reportedly plans to relocate some of its production capacity to the UK. It currently outsources its manufacturing to China, although the business opened a factory in Plymouth called Magma Moulding last December. The move was motivated by rising costs in China and the need to protect the company's intellectual property, The Telegraph reported.

BGF typically invests £2-10m for a 10-40% minority stake in SMEs with a turnover in the region of £5-100m. So far, BGF has invested £30m in SMEs in South West England and South Wales. The fund currently has roughly £130m invested in 26 companies and it plans to invest around £200m by the end of 2013.

Company
Trunki was established by Rob Law in 2006, despite incidentally being rejected for investment on popular UK TV show Dragons' Den. The company designs and manufactures multifunctional travel products for children, including its signature ride-on suitcase, a travel toy box, a car seat/backpack and a travel pillow/blanket. Trunki's products are sold in more than 2,500 UK stores as well as 97 countries overseas.

Trunki employs around 75 staff and has forecast a turnover of £10m for 2013. Revenues for 2012 were expected to be around £7m and the business reportedly made £5.4m in 2011.

People
Rob Law is the founder and CEO of Trunki. Stephen Welton is chief executive at BGF.

Through its Talent Network initiative, BGF will bring in Stuart Rose as a non-executive chairman on the Trunki board. Rose has previously worked as chairman at Hamleys and managing director at The Body Shop.

Advisers
Equity – PwC, Tom Ayerst, Christopher Tilley, Mark Comer (Financial due diligence); Burges Salmon, Richard Spink, Claire Porter-Bryant (Legal).
Company – Shaw & Co, Jim Shaw, Alastair Halcrow, Myles Hamilton (Corporate finance); Veale Wasbrough Vizards, Nathan Guest, Omar Srouji (Legal); KPMG, Simon Jones, Martin Flanigan (Tax).

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Consumer
• Expansion
• UK / Ireland
• BGF (Business Growth Fund)
• United Kingdom