Major Cash & Carry of Household, Toiletries, Electronic, Toys & Tools Etc to the Independent retail trade
Ref.EJ007 Location Greater LondonAsking Price £3,000,000Confidential offered for sale
Finance available to buy this business subject to status. All regulated business is passed to independent financial advisors who are regulated by the FSA | |
Asking price includes:
Gross margins approx 12%
Projected turnover in excess of £6,000,000
New, purpose built 40,000 square feet premises
Prime location amongst other complimentary wholesalers
Reputation for quality service and price
Extensive quality non-food range
Significant growth opportunities
Superb supplier relationships
Established customer base
Training and handover
Sign-written van
Goodwill
Web-site
Stock | Business profile: | Established in the mid to late eighties and having originally started retailing toiletries from premises in the East End of London, this business has now grown to become one of the UK’s leading Cash & Carry wholesalers of mainly non-food items with a turnover in excess of £6m.
Specialising in toiletries, toys, household, fancy and small electrical goods as well as stationary, ‘pound lines’ and hardware, this business is dedicated to offering its customers a staggering range of product, with over 10,000 stock lines available for retail sale every day.
This business is dedicated to the needs of its customers, helping them in every way to maximise their sales and profits. Buyers are in day-to-day contact with all of the key household goods manufacturers and suppliers. This business is able to react quickly to any changes in the market and with some ranges imported directly from their overseas manufacturers this business can offer customers competitively priced products – branded and unbranded - and an on-going range of exciting and motivating promotions. Its customer base of approximately 1200 account customers some of whom visit several times a week are principally market traders, CTN’s, re-Wholesalers, party planners, discount retailers, £ shops and corner shops.
Committed to high standards of product availability this business has recently re-located to a state of the art, purpose built warehouse. This very impressive 40,000 square foot building with ample, secure parking and significant room for expansion is equipped with the most up to the minute stock control system, ensuring that stock lines never run out and are replenished every day. Situated on the outskirts of London with easy access to the excellent road networks of East London, Kent, Essex and other parts of the South East via the M25, this business has a wide ranging and largely exclusive catchment area and is ideally placed to feed off the other very locally based non-competing wholesalers and as a result is set to increase its customer base, turnover and profitability substantially in the next period of time. Figures for the very first few weeks of trading in the new premises are very encouraging with turnover up significantly on like for like trading periods of previous years.
With gross margins of approximately 12%, over £6m turnover not allowing for the anticipated growth from the new premises, a superb location amongst other synergistic wholesalers and an exclusive catchment area this business represents a excellent opportunity to acquire a dynamic, highly profitable and major player in non-foods wholesale.
Key Strengths:
This business offers friendly and helpful service, quality products and competitive prices and has built up a significant reputation during its many years of operation. Operating as it does, within the non-food sector, it is much more stable and predictable being less subject to the vagaries of the food retailing sector caused by the weather, seasons etc.
Its re-location amidst a number of complimentary, non-competitive wholesalers in the food and drink sector means that it will substantially increase its customer base, turnover and profitability swiftly as many more customers become aware of it, attracted by the purpose built facility and are added to the significant, loyal customer base the business already enjoys. The new premises will enable processes to be streamlined and additional space to be utilised to increase its ordering volumes, particularly direct imports cutting costs and increasing margins.
This is a very profitable business that enjoys significant positive cashflows.
Key opportunities:
Although this business already imports a sizeable proportion of the goods it has for sale directly from the manufacturer and on which the margins available are considerably larger, with additional resources, both financial and personnel dedicated to buying, there is tremendous scope to extend direct importing into more areas with the attendant impact on profitability.
This business offers a mix of branded and non-branded goods throughout its extensive product range but perhaps most importantly within the toiletries sector. Since there are higher margin opportunities available with branded goods, by increasing the proportion of these items sold this business can increase its margins significantly. In addition by leveraging the huge levels of loyalty this business has amongst its customer base it could easily extend its offering into food and confectionery significantly increasing its turnover and profitability.
This business has done little or no marketing in the past relying on word of mouth recommendation to attract new customers. A recent marketing initiative developed specifically for the opening of its new outlet featuring a number of special promotions achieved impressive results driving turnover significantly upwards compared to the corresponding trading period in the previous year. Further marketing to attract additional customers and increase spend amongst the existing customer base will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the business across all customer segments but perhaps most significantly within the re-wholesale sector where average spend tends to be higher and where therefore a customer acquisition drive will have the greatest impact.
This business currently has just one delivery van. Deliveries are limited to customers spending a minimum of £1,000 on an order. By increasing the fleet, extending its delivery area possibly even nationwide and reducing the spending requirement it would attract customers from other geographical areas and other wholesalers currently offering better delivery terms. | Premises:
The business operates from a very impressive, newly built 40,000 square feet warehouse with extensive racking and ample car parking both for staff and customers. There is also extensive office accommodation on the first floor of the building. Located on a small industrial area with excellent access to major arterial routes, the purpose built facility has excellent loading and unloading facilities for collections and deliveries alike.
The premises will be available on a leasehold basis, term to be decided at an annual rent subject to negotiation but thought to be in the region of £220K - £240K. | <>Advertising and Marketing:
The best form of advertising for this business is | | | Financial profile: | The business is offered for sale as a going concern. All financial discussions will take place directly between the vendor and all interested parties under the auspices of Turner Butler.
The projected turnover for the current financial year is estimated to be approximately £6,000,000 with gross margins around 12%.
Full financial information is available on request. | Opening Hours:
The business is currently open Monday to Thursday 8.00am to 6.00 pm, Fridays 8.00 am to 8.00 pm and between 8.00 am and 3.00 pm on Sundays.
Employees:
This is a family business with the owner and other family members responsible for the day-to-day management of the business supported by sixteen dedicated staff. | Training and Handover:
The current owner would be pleased to assist in the handover of the business to ensure a smooth transition to new ownership. | Reason for sale:
This is a genuine retirement sale. | | Turner Butler Disclosure Statement: This statement applies to information relating to any company or other undertaking or business advertised for sale by Turner Butler (a 'Business') The information supplied by Turner Butler on its website or in any other promotional material ('the Information') is not and is not intended to constitute an offer for sale of the Business or any assets of the Business or of the shares of any company which owns the Business. For the avoidance of doubt there is no intention to create a legal relationship which will only come into existence when a written contract for sale and purchase of the shares in or the Business has been entered into The Information provided is not intended to address your particular requirements. Further the Information does not constitute any form of advice recommendation representation endorsement or arrangement by Turner Butler and is not intended to be relied upon in making (or refraining from making) any specific decisions. Any agreements transactions or other arrangements made between you and any client of Turner Butler are at your sole risk and responsibility. The prospective sellers of the Business have provided the Information to Turner Butler. The Information has not been verified by Turner Butler. You must carry out your own due diligence and satisfy yourself as to the accuracy of all matters. In the case of the sale of shares in a Business the Information has been prepared on the basis that the shares will consist of or include more than 50% of the voting shares and that both the seller and the buyer is either a body corporate, a partnership, a single individual or a group of connected individuals so as to fall outside the scope of regulated activities as defined by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. If you are considering a transaction which falls within the scope of such regulated activities you cannot do so through Turner Butler. Appropriate professional, legal and accountancy advice should be obtained before making or refraining to make any decision. Turner Butler does not accept any responsibility or liability for loss or damage of any nature that may occur by reliance on the Information. Neither Turner Butler nor any of our employees or agents makes any representation as to the completeness or accuracy of the Information nor do we accept any liability for any losses, costs, liabilities or expenses which may arise directly or indirectly from your use of, or reliance on the Information. This document is governed by and shall be construed in accordance with English Law and any dispute arising in connection with it shall be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts Turner & Co (GB) Limited registered in England and Wales under company no. 2477988 of registered office Savoy House Savoy Circus London W3 7DA, trading as Turner Butler © Shaun Sweeney October 2006 |
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