Endless firm expands with Scottish acquisition
Endless’ portfolio company, Menzies Distribution, has acquired leading Scottish logistics provider JBT Distribution.
JBT has annual sales of over £23m and a fleet of over 200 vehicles operating out of six sites throughout Scotland. It provides distribution and warehousing services for customers across a number of complementary sectors including retail, healthcare, packaging and parcel home delivery.
The acquisition of JBT is the second acquisition for Menzies Distribution in 12 months, after the acquiring Bibby Distribution at the end of 2020. The deal adds to Menzie’s geographical reach across Scotland and growing blue-chip customer base, while also also providing further capability the firm’s growing range of B2B retail logistics services.
Robert Gordon, director of JBT, said: “The Directors of JBT Distribution are delighted to announce the acquisition by Menzies Distribution.
We believe that Menzies is aligned with the future strategic and growth plan in the sectors in which we operate and will enhance the service offering of the business both locally and nationally. There will be exciting and new opportunities for the staff at JBT, whose dedicated input to the business has taken it to the position it is in today. We wish them all continued success within the larger business group and know they will continue to support the customer base with the same level of dedication that has always been evidenced.”
Greg Michael, CEO of Menzies Distribution, said: “We are gaining momentum at pace as we execute our ambitious strategy for growth and are delighted to acquire JBT. We believe that through combining the complementary business with Menzies, there are significant opportunities to grow both businesses through unlocking further geographical capability and expanding services to both sets of customers in Scotland and throughout the UK and Ireland. For both our businesses’ customers, it will be very much business as usual and we look forward to supporting their growth in the coming years and working with Robert, Donald Carmichael and the rest of the team at JBT to help deliver this. We warmly welcome our new colleagues and look forward to the next phase of our journey as an enlarged group.”
Andrew Ross, Partner at Endless LLP, added: “We are delighted to be supporting Menzies Distribution with their second acquisition in six months. This acquisition further accelerates the momentum in our strategy to transform and diversify the operations of this business. We look forward to working with Robert, Donald Carmichael and the wider JBT team to further grow the business as part of the Menzies group.”
Menzies Distribution was advised by Walker Morris (Legal), PWC (Tax), Fox Lloyd Jones (Property), and Marsh (Insurance). JBT was advised by Morton Fraser (Legal).
