News

A management team has bought Wyndeham Press Group's Visual Communications (VC) division, which includes packaging design firms Wyndeham Kestrel and JGA Design Strategies.

Divisional managing director Mick Tooley and two senior managers led the MBO of the operations, which also include retail and point-of-sale (PoS) specialist Wyndeham Colourlink, Bury-based flexo repro specialist Wyndeham Connect, and Wyndeham Bespoke in Milton Keynes.

The businesses, which employ around 300 staff in total, provide retailers and brand owners with packaging design and brand management, colour management, PoS graphics, marketing and corporate documentation.

Packaging currently accounts for £15m of a £23m turnover, and clients include Tesco, Kimberly-Clark, Cadbury, Britvic and Unilever, in addition to leading European packaging printers.

The remainder of the equity is held by Wyndeham shareholders, including Icelandic investors FL Group, Baugur and Landsbanki.

Tooley has become chief executive of the new company. However, although Wyndeham has sold the operations, Wyndeham Press Group chief executive Paul Utting will act as non-executive chairman and Kevin Lyon as a non-executive director.

Utting will also continue as chief executive of Wyndeham Press Group, with Lyon as non-executive chairman.

Tooley said the creation of a separate company was a "natural next step" in the development of the VC division.

He said he was delighted to have the strong financial backing of the Icelandic shareholders, who have made additional funds available for "acquisitions in the retail graphics and packaging markets" and for capital expenditure.

Tooley said the first acquisition would take place in the next three months.

"We have a unique offering in managing graphics across the retail environment and we have a growth plan in place to increase our turnover to £40m by 2010," he said.