Abbey Logistics Group announced today that it has acquired the complete share capital of Armet Logistics Ltd, one of the leading bulk liquid food logistics and transport companies in the UK. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
This significant development follows an exciting 12 months for Abbey Logistics; the Liverpool based specialist logistics provider, has seen the company complete a management buyout in August 2016 backed by NorthEdge Capital, and the commencement of a number of large new contracts. Abbey has also brought several highly experienced industry professionals into the business, demonstrating its commitment to growth and the services it provides to its customers.
Founded in 2001, Armet Logistics has a large and modern liquid bulk road tanker fleet, together with a state of the art tank wash facility in Liverpool. Armet provide both fully managed logistics solutions and single ‘spot’ product movements to deliver a wide range of food grade liquid products throughout the UK.
Armet has successfully built a strong reputation in the food sector and operate on behalf of some of the UK’s largest food ingredients manufacturers to provide high quality, dependable and cost effective logistics services.
Armet Managing Director Charles Lucy will remain with the business as a Director and the Armet brand will be integrated into the Abbey brand following a period of familiarisation.
Abbey Logistics were advised by Deloitte’s financial services team who provided transaction due diligence. Legal advice was provided by Napthens, and finance was supported by HSBC. Armet Logistics received legal advice from Brown Turner Ross.
Steve Granite, Abbey Logistics Group CEO said: “This acquisition is an ideal fit for Abbey and we are delighted to be welcoming the Armet team into our business. We share a common capability and passion to develop best-in-class, effective logistics solutions, and both companies also share the same positive, can-do spirit that has enabled us to grow and develop strong reputations in our sectors. I know that by bringing Armet into Abbey, this positive can-do culture within the Group will be strengthened even further and enable us to take problems away from our customers.
“By combining our people, fleets, depot networks and services we will create the ability to deliver an unrivalled customer experience that is focused on compliance, flexibility and outstanding customer service. The Armet acquisition is an important milestone in building Europe’s best bulk tanker business and I very much look forward to working with the combined teams to deliver just that.”
The combined businesses will generate an expected turnover in excess of £70m in 2017/18 and employ circa 700 people in the UK with plans to grow to over £100m in revenues by 2021, creating a further 300 jobs.
Armet Managing Director Charles Lucy said: “I have spent the past 16 years building Armet into a key player in the liquid food transport market and I am proud of what has been achieved to date. My relationship with Steve (Granite) goes back over 20 years and the opportunity for us to bring our businesses together and create an outstanding offering for our joint customer base is a very exciting prospect for me.”
“Our businesses bring together an unrivalled amount of experience and like-minded thinking in the liquid food market and this combined business will enable us to further improve our service offering to the customers.”