Business Summary:
Location: KentTo be relocatedAsking price: £795,000Asking price includes:Turnover circa c£1,400,000Adj EBITDA £189,000Net Assets c£221,00024 years of successful operations Products purchased online and through pharmacies, garden centres & specialist shopsLarge number of repeat customers Trusted and respected name Professional & knowledgeable staffSuperb supplier relationshipsStrong forward order bookTraining and handoverBusiness Profile:This company is a wholesale sales and marketing company distributing a range of confectionary, liquorice and sweets in bulk packets as well as dedicated gluten and sugar free sweets under well-known brand names. Its products are produced, packed and labelled by third party manufacturers.The business was established in 1997 and has an excellent reputation and a long standing customer base.Its customers range from Amazon (c50% of sales) through to individual sweet shops, pharmacies and small retail chains. It deliberately does not supply the large multiples.It has long standing relationships with a large number of European and UK based confectionary manufactures and it supplies their products in their original packaging to its customers. It imports from approx. 42 European manufacturers/suppliers. It also orders from approx. 40 UK suppliers. If one product range should no longer be available, there are plenty of other products to sell.The recent pandemic has seen the business pivot towards online sales and Amazon filled the gap caused by retail shop closures. The Amazon sales have continued to climb and now that retail shops are re-opening the business is poised to capitalise on a virtual doubling of turnover in the last twenty four months. Since 1997 the business has been wholesaling a wide range of confectionaries suitable for Gluten and Sugar free diets, to the high standards using only the finest ingredients. They distribute some 650 products, which are available from all leading health food stores, pharmacies, garden centres and through their Amazon shop.The business has exclusive import rights for the UK for a lot of its top selling products and for some has had these exclusive arrangements for over 10 years.The business is an Amazon Approved Vendor. This means Amazon stocks their products. They do not ship any products directly to Amazon’s customers. Customer Service:The business manages many clients in any normal week and has the systems, processes and people to ensure that both service quality and customers’ needs are satisfied. The most important aspect of customer management and satisfaction considered by the business is quality, which they believe is responsible for the business retaining customers and its reputation which has led to the acquisition of many new customers. High quality service, with flexibility, honesty, reliability and good value, every customer request is important and customers always come first. The result is self-evident in the business’ sustained level of repeat business.Key Strengths: With regulatory changes currently happening with NICE and the FSA, which will all work in the favour of this company, their Free From range, sugar free and liquorice products are undoubtedly a major strength of the business. The brand names of their products also play a key role in the strength of this business and will continue to do so into the foreseeable future. Established business since 1997 • Amazon Approved Vendor• Excellent customer base on repeated weekly, fortnightly purchase orders• Brand security and recognition • 3 websites hitting number 1 or at least on the first page of web search for key words• Asset management of brand, products, packaging and sales history• High demand for products as they are not available in supermarkets• High profit marginsGrowth and Expansion:This is without doubt a growing market place and will continue to be so well into the future with people becoming ever more aware of what the eat and of more and more people becoming more intolerant to various types of food produced.The opening up of the Amazon sales channel will increase turnover by some 50% in the current trading year.If the buyer sets up an online ordering system for the company, sales will immediately increase. Customers email or phone in their orders, at the moment.A buyer can take on a lot of new products which will give huge expansion potential.Key Opportunities:There is an immense opportunity to expand the product range in the UK and sell more products to both its existing client base and to new customers.The business has extensive customer records and database but have not utilised this excellent marketing tool at all, an area surely begging to be used for developing further business and turnover. There is huge scope to build on the existing services and customer base of this company. With a strong demand for product combined with a capacity to increase turnover, a new owner contributing fresh ideas and investment in resources will have every advantage of building on this excellent platform.Advertising and Marketing:Apart from its three websites, the business has used almost no advertising in the past and there are excellent opportunities to increase this and market the business more aggressively to significantly increase turnover. A high proportion of the business's revenue has been due to its excellent reputation for quality and service and strong word of mouth recommendation.Equipment:The business is run on Sage Accounts Professionals and has a full customer database.There is racking and shelving in the business as well as the usual office equipment and computers for a busienss of this size.Premises:The business is located in Kent on premises owned by the vendors. It will need to be re-located. However the vendors are willing to offer a short term licence of the existing premises until alternative premises are found.The total warehouse space its uses currently is 260.54 m² excluding packing area.Packing area (located in the warehouse) is 37.05 m² Office space needed for 1 Admin/secretary. Ideally this space needs to be close to the packing area. .The above is the minimum storage space required for the system currently running. There is no space for a loading bay nor for in-warehouse pallet deliveries. If a buyer had more space available there would be a significant saving on transport costs as stock orders could be for 2/4 months unlike the one month stock orders currently being placed. The vast majority of its top selling products have long best before dates e.g. 1 to 2 years.Employees:The owner works part-time in the business and is ably assisted by an Administrator/Secretary and 2 warehouse people with a third temporary warehouse person at Christmas.Notwithstanding that the owner only works part-time, in our numbers below we have assumed a replacement salary of £45,000.Financial Information: The business is being offered for sale on a going concern basis, all financial discussions will take place directly between the vendor and all interested parties under the auspices of Turner Butler. This is share sale and the Asking Price is predicated on the Net Assets at completion being £221,000. There will be a £ for £ ratchet on the selling price to reflect any movement away from this £221,000 net asset figure (of the £221k of Net assets, approx. £83k is cash).Turnover for the current year is expected to be c£1.4m with an Adjusted EBITDA after imputed management costs of c£189,000.2020 turnover was c£1,026,000 per annum with an Adjusted EBITDA after imputed management costs of £135,000.Reason for Sale:This is a genuine retirement sale.Support and Training:The current owners will provide all necessary training and handover to ensure a smooth transfer of the business to new owners, with one of the owners prepared to stay on for an agreed period of time.
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