Manufacturer builds business with £31m brickworks acquisition

Barnsley brick manufacturer Carlton Main Brickworks has been acquired in a £31.2m deal.

Michelmersh Brick has bought the business, which operates from a 93-acre site brickwork based in Barnsley.

The business is being acquired for a gross consideration of up to £38.4m, which includes the cash balances of the business at completion, being £7.2m – giving the business a net consideration of £31.2m.

The acquisitions will grow Michelmersh’s output by 40% to more than 100m bricks per year.

In the year to March 2016, Carlton made an audited profit before taxation of £2.62m on turnover of £13.1m.

Bricks have been manufactured on the site for more than 125 years

It is being sold by Oliver and Matthew Stephenson, part of the Stephenson family which has owned the brickworks since the 1970s, as well as Derek and John Wilson (deceased).

Carlton’s chairman and major shareholder Oliver Stephenson will leave the business, but will support the integration of the business into the enlarged Group through a two-year consultancy agreement.

Current managing director, Pat Furr, is retiring from the business at the end of 2017 but will also help with the transition.

Carlton has invested in its business particularly over recent years and has a strong production capability.

Michelmersh was founded in 1997 and is based in West Sussex.

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