Danish firm Hempel swoops for Crown Paints
LANCASHIRE’s Crown Paints has been bought by Danish firm Hempel in a multi-million pound deal.
The acquisition follows a major turnaround at the Darwen-based company under the ownership of Endless LLP. Last year Crown, which has 1,500 staff, made profits of £20m on sales of £180m.
The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, though a price tag of more than £100m has been mooted.
Hempel, which was established in Denmark nearly a century ago, is now a global business and supplies products to the decorative, protective, marine, container and yacht markets in more than 80 countries.
It recorded profits of €92m on revenues of €889m in 2010.
Hempel said it plans to draw on Crown Paints’ expertise in order to strengthen its decorative presence.
Crown Paints’ chief executive, Brian Davidson, said: “This deal marks the next milestone in Crown Paints’ illustrious history and signals the next phase in our exciting and ambitious growth plans.”
Mr Davidson, who is staying with the business, along with the rest of the senior team, paid tribute to Endless’ contribution.
“Endless invested into Crown Paints at a time of great uncertainty for the business, in the heart of the global financial crisis of late 2008. This helped to secure over 1,500 jobs when the business was loss-making and considered non-core by its previous owner.
“The subsequent improvement in Crown Paints’ trading performance since that time has been startling and befitting a brand of its stature.”
Hemple chief Pierre-Yves Jullien, said: “Crown Paints represents everything we were looking for – from a solid position in the market and strong financial situation, to innovative R&D and marketing.
“Crown Paints’ strong foundation, history of quality, competencies and know-how are exactly what Hempel needs to support growth in our existing decorative business. The acquisition of Crown Paints will certainly help us in reaching our strategic goal.”
Warwick Ley, partner at Endless LLP, added: “We are tremendously proud to have partnered with Crown Paints over the last three years. It has been a significant success for us in many ways. The business has outperformed just about every key metric, which is an outstanding achievement given recent economic turmoil.”
The Endless team comprised Warwick Ley, Peter Yendell and Indra Valeinis. Endless and management were advised by Deloitte in Manchester.
Corporate finance partner Andy Westbrook led the team supported by Martin Jenkins, Mark Adams, Matt Widdall, James Wigglesworth, Hamid Khan and Tom Frankum.
Law firm Eversheds (Jonathan Robinson, Danny Hall and Alisdair Outhwaite) advised Endless too. Vendor due diligence was carried out by KPMG while legals were provided by Walker Morris and Rollitts.
