Private equity business grows timber operations with Yorkshire acquisition

● Newly purchased firm will merge with Scots company to create £50m-plus entity

A private equity firm with offices in Edinburgh and London has acquired an independent Yorkshire timber merchant and is merging it with another firm in its portfolio.

Cairngorm Capital Partners has bought North Yorkshire Timber (Nytimber), which is to combine with Grangemouth-based timber processing and distribution company Thornbridge Sawmills.

The latter was acquired by Cairngorm in November, and the latest deal is “the next step” of a strategy to consolidate the UK value-added timber distribution sector.

Terms of the latest deal were not disclosed. The enlarged group will have 15 branches in Scotland and the north of England, generating revenues of more than £50 million with in excess of 360 employees. Northallerton-based Nytimber also has a specialist roof division, a dedicated 120,000 sq ft design, manufacturing and distribution centre in Brompton-on-swale and is supported by seven branch outlets. In 2017, it had revenues of £18m and more than 200 staff, and its managing director Nick Kershaw will continue to lead the business and join the group board.

Cairngorm Capital said the deal marks its 12th proprietary transaction since July 2016 and its second in the timber distribution sector, quickly following that of Thornbridge.

It added that the purchase of Nytimber offers the chance for geographical expansion and product-range extension, “qualities that Cairngorm Capital is keen to explore in other potential partners as it looks to add other wellrun timber businesses to the group”.

The deal was led by Neil Mcgill, investment director and head of Cairngorm Capital’s Edinburgh office.

He said: “Like Thornbridge, Nytimber is a very high quality business with a great management team and a shared focus on excellent customer service. We are delighted to be able to support this proprietary, off-market transaction as the next step in the creation of a leading UK timber distribution company and to welcome Nick Kershaw to the board of the enlarged group.”

Kershaw added: “This deal will support the growth ambition of Nytimber’s management team.”

Thornbridge and Cairngorm Capital were advised on this transaction by parties including BDO and Addleshaw Goddard.it was revealed in November that Cairngorm Capital had acquired Thornbridge, with the deal also marking its second major investment in Scotland, after it acquired Stevenswood Group in 2016.