LDC invests in AVS Steps and the Rhino Products group

We are pleased to announce that mid-market private equity firm LDC has significantly invested in AVS Steps and the Rhino Products group, to support our international growth strategy.

The partnership with LDC will support the AVS and Rhino management team to deliver our growth strategy through buy-and-build and further international expansion. LDC has committed to support us with additional funding to further enhance our market share in the UK and internationally. We have a strong track record of growth, having increased revenues by 60 per cent in the last three years.

LDC is backing our management team led by our CEO and Co-Founder Steve Egerton. Rhino was founded in 1997 by Clive Boult, who subsequently teamed up with Steve in 2003. Since then Steve has led Rhino to become the leading business in our sector, establishing our footprint in Europe in 2013, and successfully integrating the acquisition of AVS Steps in 2017. At the start of this year, we moved to a new state-of-the-art facility in Ellesmere Port in order to expand capacity for innovation and product development.

The investment was led by LDC’s John Clarke, Jacob Leone and Dale Alderson. John will join the board as a Non-Executive Director. As part of the deal, Gary Jacobson will also join the board as Non-Executive Chairman. Gary was formerly CEO of Middleton-headquartered Bifold Group, a manufacturer of instrument valves and pumps.

We are really pleased with the growth of the business over the last 17 years and proud of the brand and products we have developed. Opening our new facility in Ellesmere Port earlier this year was a key milestone for the business and it demonstrates our ambition to continue to grow internationally. Now we want to supercharge that growth and in LDC we have found a partner with a track record of doing just that.

Steve Egerton, CEO of Rhino Products

John Clarke, Investment Director at LDC in Manchester, said: “Steve and his ambitious team came to LDC with a clearly mapped out strategy to continue to grow the business. Rhino is already a well-established market leader with a strong brand and has real potential to increase market share in the UK and overseas. We’re looking forward to supporting the company’s next exciting period of growth.”

In the past two years, LDC has supported its portfolio companies to complete over 50 acquisitions with a combined enterprise value of more than £250m.  LDC is currently supporting two thirds of existing portfolio businesses pursue an acquisitive growth strategy.

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