MBO for Vickers Laboratories
Current members of management team buy firm from major shareholder
Three members of the company’s current management team – Steve Foster, operations director; Phil Constantine, operations manager; and Paul Bottomley, quality and supply chain manager – have acquired the business from the current majority shareholder, Julian Driver. They aim to grow the business by finding new product niches.
Driver has been involved with the firm since 1976 and now wants to take some time off to pursue other interests.
Since 2003 profit levels have increased by more than 20%. Current turnover is £2.25m.
The new management team emphasises that it is ‘business as usual but with some changes’ for the Pudsey based business, which employs 22 people.
All three participants in the MBO have been with the company for more than 20 years and have played a major part in its success.
Foster, the new managing director, joined Vickers in 1987 as a laboratory chemist. He then moved into products and services, launching the customer service team, before taking over operations in 2002.
Bottomley, sales director in the new team, joined Vickers in 1983 and progressed through operations and administration before becoming the company’s buyer and then supply chain manager. He has recently implemented a joint venture in Asia and has managed the quality system to achieve ISO 9001-2008.
Constantine, the new operations director, joined the company in 1981. Starting as a process operator, he became operations manager in 2007.
‘It is very exciting and fulfilling on a personal level to see the team I have worked with and mentored over many years become the new owners of the business,’ said Driver.
Vickers currently operates on four key areas: laboratory reagents; specialised monomers for use in the contact lens and medical industries; precision solutions and liquids for industry; and online monitoring for the water industry.
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