£40m shot in the arm for region’s businesses

UK investor BGF has invested £40m in Yorkshire and the North East during the past 12 months, despite the challenges of Covid-19. 

New investments include £15m of funding into Yorkshire Wildlife Park to support its expansion plans, and £3m into Wakefield-based technology business 365 Response – marking the Yorkshire team’s first entirely remote deal process.

365 Response has since been named the most innovative tech business in Yorkshire & Humber by Business Cloud.

Following a BGF investment in March 2020, Bayfields Opticians has already completed three acquisitions with a strong pipeline of bolt-ons.

Richard Taylor, head of BGF’s Yorkshire and North East team, said: “The fact the Leeds team has continued investing throughout 2020 is testament to the ambition and resilience of growth businesses in Yorkshire, as well as BGF’s ability to take a long-term view.

“As a minority investor, BGF has had the capacity to support its portfolio in addition to completing new deals.

“This has enabled us back a number of exciting companies during the past 12 months. As we continue to grow our own team, we plan to back even more businesses into 2021.”

Last month, BGF announced a further £7.7m investment in the expansion of Yorkshire-headquartered bakery business, Cooplands.

Three years after BGF’s initial £8.5m investment, the business has opened new stores, built up a strong leadership team and innovated its product range.

BGF says it has started to see a rise in enquiries directly from companies or through their advisors and believes the next 12 months will create further prospects for deal activity in Yorkshire.

It anticipates opportunities are likely to arise from entrepreneurs looking to make acquisitions, enter new markets and potentially de-risk of some of their own personal investment.

Taylor added: “We’ve seen remarkable innovation from the businesses in our portfolio that have refined and reinvented their strategy and, as a result, are trading well.

“Increasingly, we are now in conversations with entrepreneurs who have navigated through the initial shock of the pandemic and are starting to think once again about their longer-term goals, valuations and partnerships.”