Walker Morris advises Menzies Distribution on acquisition of Bibby Distribution

18th December 2020

Private Equity Team advise on a hat trick of Endless-backed deals in a month

Private equity lawyers at Walker Morris have advised Menzies Distribution on its acquisition of Bibby Distribution from Liverpool-based Bibby Line Group.

It is the third Endless-backed company acquisition in a month for the team, having recently advised the Endless portfolio company, BSW Timber, on two acquisitions.

Bibby Distribution is one of the UK’s largest logistics platforms with annual sales of over £150 million and a fleet of over 1,800 vehicles and trailers operating out of 38 sites. The business provides end-to-end solutions for its customers across a number of sectors including paper and packaging and consumer products. Bibby’s customers include an array of grocery retailers and blue-chip organisations.

The acquisition of Bibby Distribution further adds to Menzies Distribution’s geographical reach in the UK and its expanding blue-chip customer base. It also provides further capability to add to Menzies’ growing range of B2B retail logistics services.

Walker Morris fielded a multi-disciplinary team led by Corporate Partner Debbie Jackson and supported by: Laura Cavell, Daniel O’Connell, Evelyn Lewzey (Corporate), Nicola Parkinson, Luke Riley (Tax), James Crellin, Jennifer Mann (Banking & Finance), Thomas Jackson (Real Estate), Andrew Rayment, Hannah Blood, Charlotte Smith (Employment), Ruth Bamforth (Pensions), Lee Crook, Luke Jackson (Commercial), Alan Harper, Matthew Lingard (IP), Rachel Turnbull (Regulatory).

Debbie Jackson commented:

“Having originally advised on Endless’ acquisition of Menzies Distribution Limited in 2018 it has been great to work with the management team to help them build on their successful growth and diversification strategy. The acquisition of Bibby will enable them to continue to expand their services and geographical coverage to become the logistics partner of choice.”

Greg Michael, CEO of Menzies Distribution, said:

“We are delighted to acquire Bibby Distribution. We believe that through combining the complementary business with Menzies, there are significant opportunities to grow both businesses through unlocking further geographical capability and expanding services to both sets of customers. For both our businesses’ customers, it will be very much business as usual and we look forward to supporting their growth in the coming years and working with the team at Bibby Distribution to help deliver this.”

Andrew Ross, Partner at Endless LLP, added:

“We are delighted to be supporting Menzies Distribution with their first acquisition under our ownership.  This acquisition supports our medium-term strategy to further transform and diversify the operations of this business. Over the two years since our investment, the business has continued to go from strength-to-strength thanks to the hard work of the entire Menzies team and this acquisition will take it to over £1.2 billion in turnover.”