Private equity investment for warehouse specialist
The West Midlands team of mid-market private equity firm LDC has made a minority investment in international warehouse safety, impact protection and storage equipment provider IWS Group to support a continued buy and build strategy.
IWS Group provides products and services to the global warehousing, logistics and material handling sectors. Through its growing family of companies, IWS Group provides its customers with a one-stop solution to make their sites safer, more efficient and environmentally sustainable.
The group has a global customer base across multiple channels including operators, contractors, system integrators and resellers.
LDC is backing the existing management team, led by CEO Jeroen van den Berge and director Tim Lacey, to continue its acquisitive growth strategy, having already made four acquisitions in the last four years.
The company is looking to acquire complementary businesses that expand its range of specialist products and services and enhance its international footprint, particularly in Europe.
The investment was led by LDC’s team in the West Midlands, including investment director Matt Newbold, partner and head of the West Midlands Chris Handy and investment director Karen Mann.
van den Berge, CEO and co-founder of IWS Group, said: “Safety, efficiency and sustainability have never been more important to our customers. We have grown significantly by bringing businesses into the Group that help us to build on our credentials as a full-service provider to industrial workplaces.
“LDC is the perfect partner to help us accelerate this strategy while remaining in the driving seat of the business. Matt, Chris and Karen at LDC have years of experience helping management teams like us to expand through acquisition. We are looking forward to welcoming more businesses into the IWS family with LDC’s support.”
Newbold said: “The IWS Group is a market leading provider of through-life services to the growing and evolving industrial workspace market, supporting their customers with solutions focused on safety and efficiency. The continued strength of the UK and European logistics & warehousing sector is a strong market driver, with operators increasingly focused on bespoke-designed, energy efficient solutions to meet the long-term structural growth of this market, which IWS is well-placed to support.
“We’re excited to support the team at IWS Group to pursue their organic, M&A and international growth plans.”
