Livingston's Empteezy Group changes hands in management buy-out deal

West Lothian-based Empteezy Group has been acquired in a management buy-out backed by Chiltern Capital.

The MBO of the Livingston-headquartered designer, manufacturer and distributor of industrial safety products has been led by its chief executive David Byrne and chief financial officer Jon Hazlewood. The top team will be further bolstered by the introduction of Warwick Ley as chairman. Chiltern Capital will support the business in delivering plans to broaden its product and service offering and make further funding available for targeted merger and acquisition (M&A) activity.

Financial terms surrounding the deal have not been disclosed.

Since being established more than three decades ago by Bruce Wishart, Empteezy has grown into a pan-European operator with 250 employees serving a range of blue-chip customers from sites across the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Belgium. It is currently focused on environmental protection, spill prevention and electric vehicle battery storage.

Wishart said: “Passing the company on to the existing management was a natural decision, the hard part was finding the right partner to assist with this. Chiltern impressed with their supportive approach from the start and the introduction of David Byrne CEO and Jon Hazelwood CFO with Warwick Ley as chairman gives me full confidence in a bright future. I look forward to supporting them going forward.”

Byrne said: “It has been 36 years since Bruce launched Empteezy, and the quality of people, strength of the brand and the breadth of the product range, made my decision to join and steer the business a very easy and exciting one. Working very closely with Chiltern on that journey was also a very attractive proposition.”

David Butler, investment director at Chiltern Capital, added: “Bruce should be incredibly proud of the legacy that he has built, and we feel privileged to be able to support David, Jon and the rest of the management team with their plans for the next chapter.”

For the year ended October 31, 2021 Empteezy posted a pre-tax profit of £3.5 million, against £2.1m in the previous year, on turnover of £44.6m, up from £37.4m the year before. Management was advised on the deal by DWF.