Secondary buyout makes a £16m mark at tattoo supplier
BODY art supplier Barber of Sheffield, which specialises in tattoo needles, has new owners following a secondary buyout.
PHD Equity Partners and Enterprise Ventures have sold their share in the business to RJD Partners for around £16m.
The equity house said the deal, for an undisclosed amount, equated to an internal rate of return of 44.5%. It had invested a total of £4.4m in the business initially. which suggests the deal value came in at £16m.
PHD Equity Partners and Enterprise Ventures backed the owners Tony and Stephanie Crane in a “cash-out scale-up” investment in March 2012.
For the year to 30 September 2015, in its most recent accounts, the Barber group turned over £9.1m, up 10% on the previous year, and returned pre-tax profits of £1m, up from £924,159 the year before.
Barber, which employs 45 people in Barnsley, supplies a range of inks, needles, equipment, aftercare and hygiene products to over 30,000 individual accounts across 67 countries worldwide under the Barber DTS trade name.
The company was set up by husband and wife Tony and Stephanie Crane in 1990 to sell stainless steel blades and needles to the medical industry, before expanding into the growing tattoo market.
In 2006 it acquired Davis Tattoo Supplies (DTS), a business founded in 1900 by George ‘Professor’ Burchett whose clients included George V, King Alfonso VIII of Spain and King Frederick IX of Denmark.
In 2012 it acquired French company Northstar Tattoo Supply and in 2015 the company moved to larger premises and merged with rivals Hull-based Powerline Tattoo Supplies over the summer.
Following the initial investment by PHD Equity Partners and Enterprise Ventures, Barber has expanded into an export-focused e-commerce business. The company now operates sites in ten European languages and generates around 70% of its revenue online.
In 2014 Richard Boston from Shop Direct joined as managing director while Craig Burns moved from Sheffield United to become finance director. Tony Crane will stay on as a director of the company under RJD Partners’ investment.
Andy Dodd of PHD Equity Partners said the management had developed a strategy to more than double revenue by 2019. He said: “Barber has long set the standards within the tattoo industry and built a reputation as a responsible ethical supplier. With a strong management team and the right infrastructure in place, it is well placed to continue its expansion into Europe.”
Wayne Thomas of Enterprise Ventures said: “With a large number of small suppliers and few big players, the growing body art market offers major opportunities for consolidation. Barber has a proven track record to buy and build, and enter new territories. The current management team are now keen to lead the next stage of the company’s growth and RJD makes an ideal partner to support their ambitions.”
Dave Graham and Pete Barkley of Dow Schofield Watts provided corporate finance advice to the vendors, while Ian Riggs, Craig Scott, Jonathan Gillow and Rhian Hughes of Hill Dickinson provided legal advice and Colin Smyth of RSM advised on tax.
