TENT and sporting goods supplier AMG Group has been bought by its management in deal likely to be worth several millions of pounds.
The Port Glasgow company, which can trace its origins to cotton trading in the 19th century, is well known among camping enthusiasts for its Vango and Black's of Greenock range of tents with the latter a favourite among the likes of the Scouts, Boys Brigade and Guides.
It also owns the Force Ten mountaineering equipment brand and distributes products from the likes of winter sports equipment specialist Rossignol, stove supplier Trangia and footwear maker Asolo.
The deal will see the Moodie family, who have been involved with the company for almost 50 years, give up majority control with three long-serving directors acquiring more than 75% of the shares.
Managing director Stephen Newlands, commercial director Steve Craig and product director Glenn Andrews are all making investment into the business with additional funding coming from Royal Bank of Scotland and some loan notes provided by former owner Sandy Moodie.
Mr Moodie and other family shareholders are understood to be cashing in some of their shareholding although the exact size of any windfall is not known.
Mr Newlands, who previously had a minority stake, becomes the biggest single shareholder with 40% of the business.
Mr Newlands said: "Our goal was to keep the business here in Scotland and keep the team together. As soon as Mr Moodie made that decision to divest himself from the business we thought we had to go for it.
"We are really excited about the opportunity for the future."
The transaction also includes the AMG Services Division, based in Glasgow, which repairs and services all brands of tent.
The most recent accounts for AMG Group, which cover 2012, show a £1.4 million pre-tax profit on turnover of £27.3m while the business also had more than £4m of net funds on its balance sheet.
Mr Newlands would not reveal the exact value of the deal but said the company had performed close to its 2011 result, when it booked £33m of turnover and £3m profit, in 2013.
He is now predicting growth of around 20% this year with plans to take the Vango brand, an official manufacturer of recommended kit for The Duke of Edinburgh's Award, into North America for the first time and expand further into Asia.
Mr Moodie, who will still have a stake of around 24%, said: "Stephen, Steve and Glenn have been the driving force behind our business for many years.
"They have the energy and enthusiasm to take the business to new heights and it is fitting that they should benefit from their very significant contributions."
Stuart Downie, from RBS, said: "Our relationship stretches in excess of 30 years and we are delighted to support this successful Scottish business."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article