Paintbox secures BGF expansion funding
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Livingstone’s Industrial team has advised Paintbox Automotive, a world-class provider of painted exterior assemblies to the luxury automotive marques on a significant investment by the Business Growth Fund (‘BGF’), the provider of long term growth capital for ambitious entrepreneurs running growing UK companies.
Paintbox is a Tier One supplier providing super-premium branded automotive manufacturers including Bentley, Rolls Royce, Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin with complete exterior bumper and trim assemblies in an unmatched range of technical finishes and colors on a just-in-time, just-in-sequence basis.
The business was founded by James Sharp and Karl Durham in 1989 to service the high-end motorsports market and has grown to over 300 staff, operating from two UK facilities in the Banbury and King’s Norton and utilizing state-of-the-art robotic painting technology to provide an unrivalled service to the most demanding luxury marques in the world.
Demand for the Company’s capabilities is such that Paintbox is now engaged in a major expansion of its robotic painting capabilities, an investment in UK advanced manufacturing that BGF is excited to be able to support.
James Sharp commented: “In BGF Livingstone found us the ideal partner and with the strength of our pipeline this investment will support the next step-change in our business. Livingstone’s guidance and expertise, based on the understanding that they have gained from over a decade of working with us, has been essential to securing this important funding.”
Tim Whittard, Investor at BGF, added: “Paintbox is the only business of its type, scale and competence in the UK, and is led by an incredibly talented and ambitious management team. We are delighted to be funding the building of the new production line in Birmingham, and to be supporting the longer term growth strategy of the business.”
Graham Carberry, Partner at Livingstone, who co-led the project: “We’re delighted to have secured this significant investment for James and the Paintbox team and to have worked intimately over many years with a business that is a genuine world leader in its market.”
Following on from the recent successful sale of Coryton Advanced Fuels, the Paintbox transaction reinforces Livingstone’s drive to work with the best automotive technical manufacturing and services businesses in the UK.