BRITAIN'S largest automotive distributor, Partco, is coming to the
market in March through an offer which is likely to value the group at
around #50m.
It was bought out by its management, backed by the Bank of Scotland,
from Quinton Hazell in 1986 for #9.2m.
It claims about 6% of the components distribution sector with its
40,000 customers including Halford, Kwik-Fit, ATS, Lucas Autocentres,
National Tyre and Autocare. It is also an approved supplier to the
Ministry of Defence, BT, British Rail, the AA and Securicor.
The Northampton-based group operates around 200 branches throughout
the UK and has a central distribution warehouse at Weedon, near
Daventry. There are 15 Scottish outlets which managing director Peter
Redfern said are larger and more profitable than the majority.
Partco expects to have doubled pre-tax profits to #4.27m for 1993 on
sales 5% higher at #124m.
Proceeds from the issue will be some #25m which will halve gearing to
about 30% and leave the company well poised to expand both organically,
including new products, and through acquisition.
There are already a fair number of employee shareholders
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article