AG Parfett & Sons

Examining the options and doing what was right for the business

Family owned cash and carry business A G Parfett & Sons, had reached a stage in its development where the second-generation family members were considering relinquishing their interests in the business. Baker Tilly was invited to review the options open to the owners of the business.

Our role
In late 2007 Baker Tilly’s Manchester office prepared a report that enabled the Parfett family to examine all of the routes open to them. These included a management buy-out/buy-in, trade sale, flotation on a public market, the introduction of private equity to the business, and employee ownership. After further discussions and consideration they decided unanimously as a family that the business they had founded and nurtured should remain independent under employee ownership. Baker Tilly worked with the business, in particular with executive chairman Steve Parfett and finance director David Grimes, to turn this decision into a reality.

Feedback
“Baker Tilly prepared an excellent piece of work for us. Armed with this and with knowledge that we gained about the scope and breadth of employee ownership from the Employee Ownership Association, we decided to move to the next stage. My siblings and I felt a very strong desire not to disadvantage the 600 people that had helped us to build a very successful business. We could never have done it on our own. We felt a very strong obligation to our employees and also a pride in the business that we had built up, which had our name over the door and which had a culture within the business that we were morally comfortable with.

A well structured and tight implementation plan imposed a useful discipline on us and with Baker Tilly we worked swiftly towards an employee trust structure and raising debt on the freeholds that the business owns, to compensate family members for the sale of their shares to the trust.

Employee ownership is not the easy option to take. However, we are certain we have done the right thing for our business. Baker Tilly played a pivotal role in helping us make the right decisions and executing the changes we needed to make in a timely manner in order to produce the best outcome for the business and everyone involved in it.”

Steve Parfett, Executive Chairman
A G Parfett & Sons

Our reflections
The Parfett transaction is one that will live in the memory. Refreshing in that it was not all about price, there was a sense of strong family values and doing ‘what felt right’ that underpinned the whole transaction. Once the decision had been made there was total commitment into turning it into a reality. This generated its own momentum which is important in any transaction.

At the same time, the family realized the importance of having a clear, focused and well thought through implementation plan covering all aspects of the transition. This ranged from raising finance to fund the deal, to fine tuning the structure of the transaction through to briefing the employees as to what employee ownership meant for them. It was a great pleasure to work with the family and the business in completing the transaction.