ENTREPRENEUR Mike Welch has sold online tyre business Blackcircles to French giant Michelin in a deal worth £50 million which is likely to have netted him a substantial reward.
The 36-year-old, who was named as Scotland's emerging entrepreneur of the year by Entrepreneurial Scotland last year, intends to stay with the Peebles company and continue to grow it.
According to the most recent Blackcircles (Holdings) annual return at Companies House Mr Welch, originally from Liverpool, is the largest individual shareholder with almost one third of the shares in the business.
Other investors include its chairman Graeme Bissett, non-executive director David Jeanes and its company secretary Steven Pottinger.
Former Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy is also a long-time adviser and investor in the business who is believed to have a shareholding of around 25 per cent.
Mr Welch left school at 16 to work as a tyre fitter but later began studying accountancy at Liverpool University while also working night shifts in a supermarket to bring in more money.
At 20 Mr Welch was headhunted by Sir Tom Farmer to become e-commerce director for Kwik-Fit before that tyre company was snapped up by Ford.
Mr Welch worked for a period in Detroit following the acquisition but struck out on his own aged 23.
Since then Blackcircles has grown to around 65 staff, mainly split across Edinburgh and Peebles, with turnover in the region of £30m.
Around 1,500 independent garages are already signed up to use its services with around one third of those operating as franchises.
The garages typically fit tyres which have been bought online allowing them to compete on price with larger tyre and exhaust chains.
Blackcircles also has its own branded PitStop areas in a small number of Tesco stores, including the one at Silverburn.
In recent months the company has made a number of senior hires to beef up its management team.
Former Royal Bank of Scotland and Green Flag executive Alastair Grier joined as its commercial director while Nick Leonard, most recently head of digital at Co-operative Bank, came on board as director of digital and customer acquisition.
Alongside that it announced expansion into providing tyres for business fleets.
Mr Welch had been openly considering financing options over the past few months to fund the next phase of growth at the company but had ruled out a stock market flotation.
Among the initiatives being trialled were investing in more tyres to allow for speedier fitting times and also to let customers check stock levels at their local outlet.
Mr Welch has also spoken of doing Interflora style branding at the garages the company works with while international expansion remains a long term goal.
He said: "I'm delighted to have found in Michelin a partner who shares our passion for customer service, innovation and technology.
"The strength of the Michelin Group will allow us to underpin the multi-brand offering that we deploy in each garage, on every street corner.
"I am convinced that our teams, our customers, our garages and our suppliers will rapidly start to see the benefits of this partnership."
Michelin has been a major employer in Scotland for more than four decades with its plant in Dundee providing work for around 800 people.
It is expected to appoint representatives on to the board of Blackcircles in the coming weeks.
Jean-Dominique Senard, chief executive of Euronext listed Michelin Group, said the deal would allow it to improve its mix of distribution channels in the UK as well as developing synergies with its traditional distributor ATS Euromaster.
Just last month Michelin bought a 40 per cent stake in French online tyre business Allopneus with Mr Senard saying the Blackcircles deal is another step forward in the group's e-commerce strategy.
He added: "Our strategy illustrates our ambition: to be ever more innovative, efficient and proactive for our customers by offering them products and services suited to individual needs, and by simplifying the entire purchase process, from choosing their tyres to having them fitted by professionals."
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