Mountain Warehouse
The NBGI Private Equity investment was completed in August 2002 when the business was acquired from 21 Invest and the current managing director, Mark Neale, who rolled over most of his proceeds into the new acquisition vehicle.
Mountain Warehouse is the UK’s leading value retailer of outdoor clothing and equipment for outdoor activities. The business operates principally from factory outlet centres and high street locations.
In July 2007 NBGI PE successfully exited its investment in a sale to Arev LLP, a retail buyout house. The sale realised a return of 6x the cost of investment and generated an IRR of 50% p.a.
Throughout the life of the investment NBGI PE supported management to drive through a radically changed business model, resulting in a fundamentally stronger, more profitable business, with the following factors driving shareholder value:
- It sells its own label ranges as well as leading outdoor brands such as Karimor, Berghaus and Columbia, at discounted prices;
- NBGI PE backed a nascent business with an evolving source model;
- NBGI PE supported the successful roll out of stores from 15 at initial investment to 35 at exit, creating 153 new jobs in the process;
- Product offering changed substantially with own brand products being 5% at the beginning of the investment, increasing to around 80% at the time of exit. Gross margins increased from 48% to 61% on exit as a result; and
- NBGI PE supported the investment in head office infrastructure to provide a platform to grow and widen the exit opportunities.
