Bawtry Investments moves for Cannock food packaging firm

BAWTRY Investments has moved for Staffordshire-based food packaging products specialist Nicholl Food Packaging, the largest producer and supplier of foil containers in the UK.

Bawtry, the owner of Doncaster-based Bawtry Carbon International, said the acquisition was part of its strategy to build a sizeable industrial group.

Nicholl Food Packaging specialises in producing foil containers and other food packaging products. Its main manufacturing facility is within the former Gripperrods factory in Cannock.

Nicholl also has manufacturing plants in France and Germany together with operations in Belgium and the USA. The group’s turnover is around £60m and it employs 300 people.

BHP Corporate Finance and hlw Keeble Hawson advised Bawtry on the acquisition.

Richard Barrick, chairman of Bawtry Investments, said: “This is the first of a number of acquisitions that we would like to make over the next few years. It fitted our key acquisition criteria as a substantial manufacturer with a good market position and opportunities to improve performance.”

He added: “We have been working with Stephen Ingram of BHP Corporate Finance for nearly a year on identifying suitable acquisitions and are very pleased to have identified and completed our first acquisition in a relatively short period of time.”

Mr Ingram, partner at BHP Corporate Finance, said: “It is always challenging to find quality businesses that match defined acquisition criteria. Our market intelligence and thorough approach to buyer research identified the Nicholl Food Packaging group as a potential target.”

The BHP Corporate Finance team on the transaction also included John Longstaff (director, corporate finance), David Charlton (tax partner) and Graeme Davies (corporate tax manager).

Nick Goulding, of hlw Keeble Hawson, acted for Bawtry Investments on the legals.