McPhee Mixers Acquisition
Elaghmore Partners acquires Glasgow-based McPhee Mixers Company will become part of Elaghmore’s Total Vehicle Solutions Group Elaghmore Partners LLP, the UK-focused private equity firm, has acquired McPhee Bros (Blantyre) Limited (“McPhee Mixers”), a leading UK designer and manufacturer of truck- mounted concrete mixer units, known as McPhee Mixers, for an undisclosed multi-million-pound sum. Founded in 1971, McPhee Mixers is well-established as one of the leading UK suppliers of mixers to the construction and quarrying industry. McPhee Mixers designs, manufactures and supplies its mixers from its headquarters in Blantyre, Glasgow. It offers its customers, including some of the largest multinational businesses in the construction and aggregate industry, a unique product range of mixers tailored to their requirements.
McPhee Mixers has long been recognised as an industry innovator, continually introducing new safety features and has patents and registered designs covering its products. As well as designing and manufacturing the mixers, McPhee Mixers also services and repairs them from a specialist site in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. No other UK concrete mixer manufacturer has more than one location, so it is uniquely placed to support customers across the country. The high-quality of its products and customer service has helped deliver outstanding levels of customer retention with long-standing client relationships, in some cases, stretching more than 30 years.
Elaghmore will provide financial backing to support the growth plans of McPhee Mixers which include expanding the existing sites to help deliver a growing order book, new product development, the addition of sales and marketing capability and geographic expansion to capitalise on the Company’s intellectual property. McPhee Mixers, which employs 70 people, will continue to operate autonomously but will become part of Elaghmore’s Total Vehicle Solutions (“TVS”) Group. The Group includes other Elaghmore acquisitions, SB Components and Priden Engineering. Each company shares similar attributes, such as high-levels of technical expertise and best-in-class customer service in their respective industries.
By being part of the TVS Group, the companies can cross-sell products to the combined customer list, share facilities across the UK to broaden their reach as well as share best practice and technical expertise. The Group also has plans to expand internationally. The TVS Group under the ownership of Elaghmore has annualised revenues of £50 million and operates across four sites in the UK.
Andy Ducker, Founding Partner at Elaghmore, said: “McPhee Mixers is a strong, profitable company with a growing order book, a track record of innovation and long-term relationships with some of the biggest names in the UK construction industry. It is a valuable addition to our Total Vehicle Solutions Group and expands its capability to offer even more products to its industrial client base from a growing number of sites across the UK. We are excited about working with the management team at McPhee Mixers to build on their success including growing its existing sites, developing new products and securing a foothold in other geographies to exploit its intellectual property.” Commenting on the transaction, Brinsley McFarlane, Managing Director, McPhee Mixers, said: “McPhee Mixers has a long and enviable record of success within the engineering industry, and we have ambitious plans for the future. Working with Elaghmore will help us deliver these, which is demonstrated by their track record in backing companies like SB Components. It is an exciting day for our skilled and dedicated workforce as well as our customers as we look to build on our success so far as part of the TVS Group.”
McPhee Mixers is the fourth acquisition made by Elaghmore from its initial private equity fund, Elaghmore I (Fund 1) which closed at the end of 2016, raising £60 million. The fund was oversubscribed, and the investors are a mixture of US and European institutions. The investment strategy of Fund 1 is focused on UK-headquartered industrial businesses that present a significant opportunity for growth and value creation. Led by David Manning, Andy Ducker, David Morley and Greg Koral, Elaghmore Partners has a strong track record over the past decade for investing in and successfully growing businesses, including Chaucer Foods, mainly through operational transformation. Fund 1 was launched to capitalise on the partners’ successful track record and their strong operational expertise.