Eyewear group in major new deal
Designer eyewear group Inspecs has continued its recent run of acquisitions by agreeing a deal for a global design and licensing company whose brands include leading fashion names.
The Aim-listed company, which has its headquarters in Bath, has bought 100% of Ego Eyewear Limited and its operating subsidiaries in Sweden and Hong Kong.
Inspecs will pay an initial consideration of £6.175 million and a deferred consideration partly based on performance over the next three years.
The company said it was expecting the transaction to be “earnings enhancing” for 2022, with Ego forecast to have revenue of £8.9m for the year to December 31, 2021 (up from £3.4m in 2020).
Ego uses third party manufacturers to produce eyewear for Barbour, Liberty of London, Viktor & Rolf, Lyle & Scott, Henry Lloyd and Joseph, as well as Nordic brands Ivana Helsinki, Valerie and Day.
The company, run by Ronald and Johanna Gezang, has its HQ in London and a design house in Stockholm, with a global distribution network.
Robin Totterman, chief executive of Inspecs, said: “We are pleased to bring Ego into the Inspecs Group to further develop our brand portfolio and add to our Scandinavian offering, where we believe there are considerable opportunities for us.
“We have known Ronald and Johanna for a number of years and watched as they have successfully developed Ego into a significant player in the Nordic region, Japan and the UK.
“Both parties were able to see the value that Inspecs brings to continued development of global sales. Ego’s design studio in Stockholm adds to our existing teams in the UK, Portugal, Hong Kong and New York. We look forward to working with the new members of our group in 2022.”
The transaction comes weeks after Inspecs agreed a deal to buy BODE Design, a German distributor of optical and sunglasses frames.
Last year, Inspecs agreed to acquire all the equity interests in Nuremberg-based eyewear supplier Eschenbach Holding. It also bought up the manufacturing arm of a Gloucester-based glasses company that went into administration.
In September, Inspecs posted an increase in revenue to $125.7m in a set of interim results for the six months to June 30 2021, up from $16.7m in the first half of 2020. The group’s underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased to $17.7m from $0.7m for the same period a year earlier.