Flooring manufacturer offloads tile business in £30m deal
International flooring manufacturer Victoria has disposed of its Turkish ceramic tile business in a £30.9m (€36.8m) deal.
The Kidderminster-headquartered firm has offloaded Graniser, based in Izmir, to Hasan Akgün, who has paid £8.4m on completion alongside £22.5m of net debt.
The deal also includes a long-term agreement for the supply of Victoria-specific ceramic tiles at manufactured-cost pricing, which is expected to boost Victoria’s profit.
Graniser has been hit by recent instability in several of its key markets, and for the 12 months to 30 March 2024, it generated audited underlying revenues of £30.1m and underlying EBITDA of £900k.
Akgün is the CEO of Duratiles and a member of the highly respected Akgün family, who established its family business in 1925.
The Akgün Group operates in construction materials, automotive, insurance, logistics and oil sectors across Turkey and internationally. Whilst remaining family-owned, it is now one of the largest companies in Turkey with 5,000 employees and 17 factories.
Philippe Hamers, group CEO of Victoria said: “Having experienced a difficult demand environment recently, the sale of Graniser to, and partnership with, Mr Akgün will provide Victoria’s ceramic tiles business continued access to cost-effective tiles whilst contributing towards the deleveraging of the Group’s balance sheet by reducing leverage by approximately 0.5 times.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the sale of Graniser will have no impact on our other Turkish businesses, which employ 900 people extruding synthetic fibre for our soft flooring factories, and manufacturing rugs for export to Europe and the United States, and remain an important part of the Group.”
