Dr Martens in £3bn booty
OWNERS SET TO CASH IN ON FLOTATION
THE owner of famous boot maker Dr Martens is set for a colossal payday under plans for a £3billion stock market flotation.
The move would mark a 10- fold return for private equity firm Permira which bought the British business for £300million from its family founders in 2014.
Bosses such as chief executive Kenny Wilson and chairman Paul Mason are also likely to enjoy bumper windfalls.
Insiders insist Permira, which controls Dr Martens through a Luxembourg-based offshoot, has invested heavily.
The planned listing on the London Stock Market is in sharp contrast to Dr Martens’ past, when it was the favoured footwear of 1980s punks and Sex Pistols fans. The air-cushioned boots’ design was the brainchild of Klaus Martens, a doctor in the German army during World War II. Family firm R Griggs began making them in 1960 after buying the UK rights. Dr Martens sold 11 million pairs last year, in more than 60 countries, and generated revenues of £672million in the year to last April. Trade in the following six months jumped 18 per cent, despite the coronavirus crisis, with the firm increasingly bypassing other shops and selling direct to wearers. While still based in Northamptonshire, Dr Martens now makes the vast majority of its products in the Far East. Its product quality has come under question since the Permira buyout, but that’s dismissed by the firm. Wilson said: “We have an exciting future ahead.”