Kitchen duo get cooking with £3m investment
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A FATHER and son who hope to run the leading online worktop retailer in Europe have secured a £3million investment from the Business Growth Fund to support the expansion of their company, Direct Online Services, in the UK and overseas.
Martyn and Will Rees launched the firm’s flagship brand, Worktop Express, and opened its first showroom in Gloucester in 2009. It now employs almost 200 people and expects turnover to exceed £25million this year. Its portfolio includes Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets, deTerra and WEX Trade, and it has nine individually branded websites, four eBay shops and a fleet of vehicles. It also has another five showrooms around the country.
The company, which operates in Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland, plans to expand its European coverage across Germany and into France, increase its range of products and invest further in marketing.
Martyn Rees said: ‘The business has grown rapidly in the past seven years and we have continued to make investments in our team, infrastructure, operations, sales and marketing.’
The investment by BGF will also be used to support expansion across the UK. The group has recently added laminate worktops and new kitchen components, such as sinks and cabinets, to its range.
BGF is the UK’s most active provider of growth capital to small and mid-sized firms. The companies it backs are privately owned or listed on AIM, and typically have revenues between £5million and £100million. It makes investments of between £2million and £10million and can provide additional growth funding. The investment provided is typically in return for a minority equity stake.
BGF is an independent company with capital of up to £2.5billion and is backed by five of the UK’s main banking groups – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered.