Now here is an interesting news article from the Solidor website:
Solidor Group has received a significant investment from DW3 Product Group, which has just been set up with the financial backing of private equity firm NorthEdge Capital, to form a new and dynamic group of businesses that’s set to change our perception of the fenestration industry in the UK.
This strategic investment for a significant shareholding in composite door pioneer, Solidor Group, will allow the business to accelerate its growth plan, expand its senior management team and to continue investing in operations, capacity and IT. It will also provide a firm platform, support and commercial resources for a buy and build strategy to create a truly innovative group.
Over the last five years Solidor has matured into the fastest growing company in the composite door sector as it challenges for market leadership. With the industry’s best and award-winning marketing campaigns, they have continued to demonstrate an aggressive product development programme for their solid hardwood core doors that’s spurned a number of industry firsts, a colour range that extends to 17 finishes inside and out and a range of exclusive hardware options, not to mention a number of awards and accolades.
DW3 Product Group is being headed up by CEO Gareth Mobley, also the current managing director of Solidor Group and supporting him is an experienced board of commercially minded directors. They include the incoming chairman Stuart Lees, who has considerable expertise in corporate finance, growth and acquisition strategies both inside and outside the industry with Epwin Group, Everest and Ultraframe.
This dynamic new group will be making further investments in the coming months, which they believe will help them realise their ambition to become one of the most successful and exciting company groups in the home improvement sector. In the coming months DW3 Product Group already have firm plans for acquisitions of businesses with similar qualities to Solidor, which will help re-define the structure of the glazing industry.
Gareth Mobley, CEO of DW3 Product Group commented: ‘This is great news for everybody at Solidor and for our industry as a whole, that external investors can now see real opportunity in our sector once again. This will allow us to accelerate our growth plan at Solidor and we’ve got big ambitions for the future and a number of further product developments to launch.
He continues: ‘I will still remain actively involved in Solidor, though we will be supplementing the business with a number of key appointments in the immediate future, while our established management team continue to run the business on a day to day basis.’
Firstly, congratulations to the Solidor team and Gareth Mobley on this new chapter in the life of Solidor. Clearly expansion and growth is the plan here and hopefully all involved will be able to make that happen. There are a few interesting points to pick out of this release which are worth mentioning.
The first paragraph for example talks about forming a “new and dynamic group of businesses”. Does that mean the businesses already within Solidor or they are about to embark on a Google-like buying plan? Well that question is pretty much answered further down the release when it says “In the coming months DW3 Product Group already have firm plans for acquisitions of businesses with similar qualities to Solidor, which will help re-define the structure of the glazing industry.”
So the group has got some money to spend and is planning to do just that. But not only does it seems acquisitions are about to take place, but also some key industry figures are set to go to the group. Gareth goes on to say at the end of the release: ‘I will still remain actively involved in Solidor, though we will be supplementing the business with a number of key appointments in the immediate future, while our established management team continue to run the business on a day to day basis.’ We can expect then some more statements in the coming weeks and months as to who will be joining the expanding group.
Can we see the forming of the next industry super-group? Perhaps. It will be interesting to see who is unveiled as the businesses being bought. We all privately have our hunches I guess. But what I hope, and I think we all hope, is that the promise of this new group of businesses transforming the way we see the UK fenestration sector does so for the better. I maintain my opinion that there are large areas of the industry still operating in an archaic way. If this new super-group can kick the industry up the backside and really get some energy and revolution going, then that can only be for the better.
