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Deal Maker of the Year Awards 2013 WINNER - COLIN STEVENS DEAL: Business Growth Fund invested £10,000,000
NAME: Colin Stevens COMPANY: Better Bathrooms WEBSITE: www.betterbathrooms.com
UK
BIO
Better Bathrooms story is one of exceptional growth in a competitive retail market. From humble beginnings, 12 years ago as a purely online business, operating out of 21 year old founder Colin Stevens’ bedroom, buy selling a range of products online via eBay. From this, the business evolved, first selling a range of bathroom products from multiple distributors; and then from 2008 sourcing products directly. Better Bathrooms is now firmly established as the UK’s largest independent bathroom and tiles retailer, with over 180 staff based in either our head office in Leigh, our office in Warrington or in one of our 3 showrooms in Wigan, Warrington and Manchester.
In the past 12 months, Colin Stevens has won 17 awards including:
• Better Bathrooms have the 33rd spot on the The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100. • eCommerce Awards Of Excellence – Best Home and Garden Retailer 2013 • IoD North West Director of the Year Awards – Young Director of the Year 2013 • Digital Entrepreneur Awards – E-commerce Business – SME: Better Bathrooms 2013 • National Business Awards – Entrepreneur of the Year 2012
In 2007 Better Bathrooms annual turnover stood at just over £1m and in the last financial year the turnover was £32m, with a target of reaching £40m within the next 12 months. The company aims to double their growth over the next three to five year, as part of this strategy a new showroom is opening in Leicester on 26th December 2013.
In June 2013, The Business Growth Fund invested £10m of growth capital in the company. As a result, Better Bathrooms is on track to create 500 new jobs across the UK over the course of the next five years, providing a significant boost for the country’s economy and the retail industry.
Q
What was your role within the transaction?
CEO, seller and negotiator. We spent many months researching and targeting potential investors that with our culture and strategy.
Q difficulties presented? What were the challenges or
Finding the right partner at the right price. We wanted a minority shareholder to retain control, but didn’t want to pay to high a price. The BGF thoroughly understood our business and therefore could see the value we created and the exciting opportunities.
DEAL OVERVIEW
The BGF was established in 2011 to help Britain’s growing smaller and medium sized businesses. Backed by five of the UK’s main banking groups – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Standard Chartered – BGF is an independent company with up to £2.5bn with which to make long-term equity investments. BGF also works closely with other key business organisations.