LONDON, UK: Essentra plc has announced the acquisition of Wixroyd Group, a leading UK supplier of industrial parts for the engineering sector, for an initial consideration of £29.5 million.

This is the first acquisition to be announced since Essentra outlined its new strategy as a pure-play components business and continues a successful track record of acquisitions in the components business over the last ten years.

The acquisition of the Wixroyd Group expands Essentra’s capabilities in hardware components and creates significant additional cross-selling opportunities across a range of Essentra’s current end markets with the initial focus on Essentra’s customer base in Continental Europe.

The acquisition fully supports the Company’s strategy, as set out at the recent Capital Markets Event, to accelerate and supplement organic growth through value enhancing bolt-on acquisitions that expand its product, market and geographic breadth. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to adjusted1 EPS in the first full year of ownership, with ROIC2 expected to exceed 15% within three years, and delivers profit margins significantly ahead of the current Group level.

Based in Chichester, the Wixroyd Group comprises three leading UK brands of differentiated mechanical components. With a 70 year history, it has earned a reputation for high quality components delivered with an excellent level of service to its 9,000 customers. The Wixroyd Group manufactures and supplies one of the broadest ranges of innovative mechanical components, with an extensive portfolio of over 100,000 products available across the online range providing solutions for product design and engineering challenges.

The consideration payable for the Wixroyd Group comprises an initial cash consideration of £29.5m and up to £7.0m deferred earn-out consideration on a cash-free, debt-free basis. For the year ended 31 December 2021, the Wixroyd Group generated revenue of £10.4m, and EBITDA of £2.6m. Based on the Wixroyd Group achieving its forecast performance for the year ended 31 December 2022, the initial consideration would represent an acquisition multiple of c.9x EBITDA.

In determining the base case the Board expects a similar EBITDA performance in 2023 given the macro-economic environment. The deferred earn-out consideration is conditional on achieving certain performance criteria for the 12 month period commencing 1 January 2023, which would exceed the base case. The Board expects revenue and purchasing synergies arising from the acquisition to materially benefit performance from 2024 onwards.

The initial acquisition consideration, and any subsequent conditional consideration will be financed from Essentra’s existing cash flow and debt facilities. Following the acquisition Essentra’s balance sheet will remain strong, with the proforma net debt position of the continuing components business representing significantly less than 1.0x EBITDA, providing the capacity to drive further organic and inorganic growth ambitions.

Scott Fawcett, Chief Executive Designate of Essentra plc, commented: “I am delighted to announce the acquisition of the Wixroyd Group, which will further strengthen Essentra’s expertise and leading product portfolio to the benefit of our customers. Our plan is to launch Wixroyd products to Essentra’s Continental European customers, further strengthening the breadth of our offer.

This transaction is a great example of the Components’ strategy in action as we leverage our strong balance sheet and the significant opportunities for product expansion in highly fragmented markets to accelerate our potential as a pure-play components business.”

Marcus Iafrate, MD of the Wixroyd Group, and Anthony Iafrate, Chair of the Wixroyd Group, commented: “The achievements of the Wixroyd team, and the role our products have played in enabling design engineers across the UK to innovate and solve countless engineering challenges, has been a great source of pride for both of us as we have guided the Wixroyd Group over the last 30 years.

The next phase in Wixroyd’s development is hugely exciting. We have seen substantial growth in our business, predominately in the UK, and look forward to scaling this to a wider, more international customer base, in the next phase of our development. The culture of Essentra Components places the same importance on people as we have at Wixroyd, which, along with the excellent product and customer fit, makes this an exciting time in our company’s history.”