Geldards Advise Management Buy Out Team At Custom Group

Two long serving directors Custom Group Limited, a premier provider of window furnishing and theatre room products, have become shareholders of the company following a Management Buy-Out following advice from Geldards' corporate team.

Derbyshire based Custom Group manufactures and installs hundreds of blinds, curtain tracks and curtains to the Health, education and entertainment sectors. Their Theatre division offers a ‘one stop shop’ for Theatre sound and lighting equipment, perimeter tracking, stage curtains, seating and staging. The group also install projectors, flat panel TV’s and interactive whiteboards.

The two directors, Mark Johnson and Russell Dallison, will now join Chairman Richard Rybij, who set up the business in 1974, as shareholders and will continue the group’s growth strategy.

Mark Johnson said: “It’s very much business as usual - we’re growing the group and aiming to strengthen the product offering in some new exciting markets”

Hugh Strickland from Geldards who advised the management buy-out team commented: "This has been a really interesting deal to work on. We all know how hard funding has been to come by over the last year or two, and yet there are plenty of business owners ready to let younger, ambitious management teams step up to the plate.

“The way this deal was structured was a fantastic example of how local dealmakers work together to meet the commercial objectives and make deals happen, despite the challenging environment."

Lead advisers to the deal were a team from PKF accountants and business advisers led by Corporate Finance Director Rabby Persaud and Tax Partner Simon Browning.

Rabby commented: “Simon and I worked from a tax and corporate finance perspective to get the deal into shape and agree the heads of terms between the parties. The deal was a friendly one involving a team who have worked together for a number of years - which certainly helped the process to run smoothly”.

Simon added “Richard has successfully run the business for thirty seven years and both Mark and Russell have worked in the group for over ten years each, so it’s very satisfying to assist long standing clients of the firm to achieve their corporate objectives.”