Wednesday January 1st 2020

financial risk consultancy - upmarket holidays - mechanical seals maker –
lifestyle brands - boutique cinema chain
– engineering group -

JC Rathbone Associates £12m | The Inspiring Travel Company £92m | Aesseal £143m | One Retail Group £15m | Everyman £18.8m | Pressure Technologies £35.8m

News about 6 UK growth companies and/or accelerators + turnover in the GRID marketplace 27th August – 2nd September 2017:

JC RATHBONE ASSOCIATES: financial risk consultancy - London
Risk adviser in £13.6m buyout | The Sunday Times, August 27
DZ profile: JCRA Group Limited
Business: A financial risk consultancy which advises clients on debt, private equity and hedging
Launched: 1989
Location: London SW1
Founder: John Rathbone
Staff: Chief executive Jackie Bowie, 44.
Financials: made pre-tax profits of £1.1m on sales of £12m last year.
Investment: has completed a £13.6m management buyout as it seeks to expand into new markets in Canada, Europe and America. The buyout, backed by the investment business CONNECTION CAPITAL, marks the exit of founder John Rathbone, who set up JCRA in 1989, and three other directors.

THE INSPIRING TRAVEL COMPANY: upmarket holidays - Cheshire
Travel agent views rivals | Aimee Donnellan, The Sunday Times. August 27, 2017
DZ profile: ITC Travel Group Limited
Business: travel operator which plans holidays for the wealthy, is seeking to take advantage of growing demand among Britain’s affluent travellers for luxury bespoke trips. Specialising in tailor-made holidays, the company is one of the UK's largest independent tour operators and was the first to charter Concorde. Featured recently in the BBC2 documentary The Millionaires’ Holiday Club. Customers spend an average of £15,000 per holiday and favour the Caribbean. The firm’s largest booking last year was £300,000 for a bespoke family holiday.
Launched: 1974
Location: Chester, Cheshire
Staff: Jennifer Atkinson, chief executive
Financials: has been growing steadily, with revenues last year up by 13% to £92m. Profits were £4.3m, up 10% year on year. The company reported boosted turnover of £80m in the year to April 2016, up from £43m in 2013, after acquiring Western and Oriental Travel in June last year.
Investment: August 2016 NORTHEDGE CAPITAL, in a deal thought to be worth around £30m, bought a majority stake in ITC following a management buyout by chief executive Jen Atkinson and her senior team.
News: is now in talks to buy two rivals.

AESSEAL: mechanical seals maker - Yorkshire
Profiting from Brexit: UK sealmaker benefits from devalued pound | Jonathan Ford, FT. August30
DZ profile: Aesseal Plc
Business: is the world’s fourth-largest maker of mechanical seals — essential components for virtually all rotating machines involving fluids, which play a vital role in activities ranging from chocolate production to oil refineries. …still manufactures nine-tenths of its output in Britain, mainly from two modern factories in the old steel town of Rotherham. All its main rivals are based either in the US and the EU.
Launched: 1981
Location: Rotherham, Yorkshire
Founder: Chris Rea, managing director
Staff: 1700
Financials:  sales last year £143m
Investment: Chris Rea still owns 60 per cent and has no intention of listing the shares
News:
1. AES …with its international focus and family ownership, the company bears a strong similarity to the Mittelstand companies that provide the backbone of the German economy.
2. Brexit: As a company that has kept production in the UK, invested in high-tech manufacturing processes, and exports a niche product around the world …is confident that any downsides from Brexit will be more than compensated for by the pound’s weakness. Moreover, AES faces tariffs only when its exports classify as manufactured products. Export parts to assemble to order, as the company often does, and the rate falls to zero.
More than 80 per cent of its sales last year were to customers outside the UK, of which a quarter were to the EU.
3. Meanwhile, imports of components — likely to be subject to tariffs should Britain leave the EU without a trade deal — are relatively low.
4. Currency devaluations have a mixed record of delivering export surges — at least as far as Britain is concerned — since demand for its predominantly high-value industrial goods tends to be less sensitive to price than commodity products. But Mr Rea, who has already cut labour costs over the past five years from 11 per cent to 6 per cent of the selling price, thinks AES will prove an exception, since his business model is largely based on offering a cheaper alternative to his rivals.
5. Most companies in his sector make their profits by selling highly priced replacement seals, which make up the losses incurred by initial bulk sales to equipment manufacturers. Because of seals’ importance in assuring safety, many end users are reluctant to switch suppliers. That is especially true of the oil and gas industry, which accounts for half the global market and where even a tiny leak can cause a catastrophe. Still, Mr Rea is hoping to win new customers by offering more economical replacement parts, especially to countries such as Turkey, Colombia and Brazil — the kind of emerging markets Brexit advocates say could provide a fillip to British exports.

ONE RETAIL GROUP: lifestyle brands - London
The London schoolboy who scooted his way to millions by the age of 28 | Naomi Ackerman, The Evening Standard. August 31.
DZ profile: One Retail Group Limited
Business: He now runs, which owns five lifestyle brands and operates in the UK, USA and Europe. His firm sends about 2,000 items a day around the world and plans to expand into Japan, Mexico and India.
Launched: 2013
Location: Camden’s Stables Market
Founder: Joshua Stevens, 28, …an entrepreneur who bought a scooter from China via his parents’ fax when he was 13 — then sold it for a profit — has revealed how he created a multi-million-pound business.
Financials: is predicted to have a £15m  turnover by the end of this financial year.

EVERYMAN: boutique cinema chain - London
Everyman cinema chain reveals sales jump | Joanna Bourke, The Evening Standard. 1 September
DZ profile: Everyman Media Group plc
Business: upmarket cinema chain - 21 venues, including Muswell Hill and Barnet, where customers can expect to pay £13.49 on average for a ticket
Fonder: Daniel Broch
Launched: 2000
Location: London NW3
Financials: revenue rose 55% to £18.8m and pre-tax profits were £783,000 after a £295,000 loss last year.
Investment: Listed on AIM November 2013
News: Everyman plans to open nine more cinemas in the coming years, including in Borough Market.

PRESSURE TECHNOLOGIES: engineering group - Sheffield
Small-cap focus: regional businesses look beyond EU for growth | Andy Bounds and Chris Tighe, FT. September 2
While 44 per cent of UK trade is with the bloc, many UK companies sell goods and services elsewhere. The t…companies featured here demonstrate the importance of British links with fast-growing economies in China and India, as well as big business markets in South Korea, North America and beyond.

DZ profile: Pressure Technologies Plc
Business: specialist engineering group
Launched: 2007
Location: Sheffield
Financials: Revenue in year to 01-Oct-16 £35.8m. Analysts still predict a profit for the full year, after a £2.6m loss in the six months to the end of April. It makes more than half its sales outside the UK.
Investment: Floated on AIM on 06 Jun 2007
News:
1. on Thursday announced a profit warning because of delayed projects at GREENLANE BIOGAS, a company it bought in 2014 to reduce its exposure to the volatile oil and gas markets. Greenlane, which has offices in Canada and New Zealand as well as its home city of Sheffield, installs systems that improve the gas produced by organic waste plants and landfill sites so it can be burnt by power stations. It has more than 100 plants in operation. However, many North American waste operators have delayed investment decisions, reducing sales forecasts. There have also been cost overruns on some European projects.
2. … its other divisions, which include pressure testing equipment, gas cylinders and precision components, were performing well, it said.