Clothing group goes up a size after Leeds shopping trip

ONE of the country’s largest corporate wear suppliers has gone up a size after it bought a £6m-turnover Leeds business for an undisclosed sum.

Birmingham-based Direct Corporate Clothing (DCC) has acquired The Business Wear Company, creating a £36m-turnover company.

Retail entrepreneur Nick Atkinson had previously led an MBO of, and then sold, Prima Corporate Wear. He bought Image 1st/CKL from administrators in 2011,and renamed the Leeds-based company to create The Business Wear Company.

He then led the transformation of a loss-making £1.3m-turnover business into a growing business which now has annual sales of £6m and a client list that includes BT, Mitie and Kwik Fit.

The deal sees Mr Atkinson return to the board of DCC and he will direct the company’s corporate wear strategy.

Mr Atkinson said: “With DCC’s extensive infrastructure and experience  it will allow us to leverage such strengths across the whole UK and European corporate wear markets giving medium/large end users a great opportunity of working with a group that can supply all of its corporate wear, work wear and PPE needs.”

DCC is one of several associated companies based in Oldbury which between them have a turnover of around £66m.

Sam Sohal, joint managing director of DCC, said: “This is a great acquisition enabling us to bolt on a raft of fantastic high profile corporate wear contracts such as Compass Group, Jet 2, and Noonan to name but a few.

“The Business Wear Company has experienced meteoric growth since its inception and we’re now looking forward to working with Nick, his customers and team, in building on this great success.”

The Business Wear Company was advised by Squire Patton Boggs in Leeds, led by corporate associate Craig Pettit and corporate partner Paul Mann.