Business supplies and services group agrees £90m financing facility

Andy Ross

The Sheffield-headquartered EVO Group of companies has secured new, simplified £90m financing facilities to support its future plans.

After a competitive process including offers from its existing lenders, EVO Group has agreed new syndicated facilities with Breal Zeta and Leumi ABL for the next three years to replace its existing facilities that were due to expire in April 2021.

The EVO Group is the largest operator in the £18bn business supplies market and is backed by Leeds-headquartered private equity investor Endless, which created the group in 2014 when it completed its first public to private transaction with the acquisition of office2office plc, and combined it with its existing investment, Vasanta Group.

EVO provides sales, marketing, sourcing, delivery, storage and fulfilment services on behalf of manufacturers to value added resellers, corporate, public sector and SME organisations in the UK and Ireland.

It does this via its Group companies, VOW and Banner and through four online trading sites using its own 350-vehicle transport organisation, Truline.

Steve Haworth, CEO of EVO Group, said: “As we end a positive 2020 for our Group, we are very pleased to announce the successful completion of the refinancing of our facilities.

“The fact we have completed this process whilst still in the middle of the pandemic and just before the next Brexit deadline is testament to the hard work and commitment of those involved and reaffirms the confidence we and others have in our business model and the positive outlook for the multi-channel sales, marketing and operational platform we have built.

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our existing lenders who have supported us over many years and we look forward to building equally good long term relationships with our new partners.”

Andy Ross, partner at Endless, added: “We are very pleased with what the whole team at EVO has achieved during 2020 and the confident in the strength of EVO’s offering in a transformed market.

“The business has delivered strong results in a challenging economic environment.

“Ending the year with the completion of this refinancing puts the business in a fantastic position going into 2021 and beyond to further develop and grow.”

Ben Milner, business development director at Breal, said: “It has been a pleasure working with EVO to structure this facility which will support them in continuing to achieve their long-term goals.

“Their performance this year, during a difficult trading period for many, is testament to their strong leadership and business model.

“We look forward to working closely with the EVO team in the years ahead.”

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