The new owners of Bradford carton printer Storey Evans are to intensify the firm's focus on the pharmaceutical and healthcare markets to offer an alternative to the major groups.
Managing director Gerard Harford, the new majority shareholder, and operations director Nick Smith bought the £14.5m-turnover firm from MSO Group. Both are former Nampak employees and have decades of experience of the carton sector between them.
Harford joined Storey Evans two years ago, after its takeover by MSO, and Smith followed six months later. Their management team also includes finance director Phil Naylor and sales director Bruno Chorzelewski, who has been with the firm for more than 20 years, although neither of them has taken a stake in the business.
Harford said he had an agreement with MSO chief executive Dominic Walsh that he could attempt a management buyout if the business met defined targets, which it hit in January.
"I had previously tried to buy another couple of businesses and it has always been a burning ambition to own my own business," said Harford.
Pharma and healthcare accounts for 90% of the firm's order book and Harford said the firm aimed to consolidate its position in the sector in the next 12 months by focusing on service and cost.
"The message we are getting from customers is there's no true independent [in the pharma sector]," he added.
Storey Evans, which employs 160 staff, runs Komori and Man Roland presses and Bobst die-cutters.
Harford said no major investment was planned in the near future although he would visit the Drupa trade show, which begins next week in Düsseldorf, to look at equipment for producing patient information leaflets.
Source: packagingnews
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