Outdoor Living sold to Buy It Direct Group
BCMS has advised Outdoor Living Ltd, a leading UK-based Jacuzzi dealership of hot tubs and swim spas, on its sale to online retail specialist Buy It Direct Group.
Established in 2004 and operating from two premium showrooms in Leeds and Hull, Outdoor Living is a multi-award-winning exclusive regional supplier of Jacuzzi® products. In addition, the company has developed its own-brand product offering, The Outdoor Range, and established a successful online store providing high-quality hot-tub chemicals, filters, and accessories. Customer approval ratings are excellent, and the business offers advice, finance, installation, and maintenance services.
“Without a shadow of a doubt, this deal would not have happened without BCMS. We couldn’t have had a better team of advisors, and they opened our eyes to the many minefields and hurdles in the business sale process” – Paul Margerison, Outdoor Living
The popularity of premium hot tubs in the UK continues to grow, and Outdoor Living’s experience in this sector makes the business an ideal platform for future growth. Founder Paul Margerison will continue to lead the Outdoor Living business as it joins Buy It Direct Group.
Founded in Huddersfield in 1999 by CEO Nick Glynne, Buy It Direct Group is one of the UK’s largest online retailers, with a portfolio of well-known brands including Laptops Direct, Better Bathrooms, Appliances Direct, Servers Direct, Furniture123 and Drones Direct.
Buy It Direct Group employs 970 staff, operates over one million sq. ft. of warehousing and has demonstrated significant growth in recent years.
Deal insights and commentary
Commenting on the transaction, Buy It Direct Group CEO Nick Glynne said: “Outdoor Living is another building block in our growing lifestyle offering. This is brilliant customer-focused hot tub & swim spa business, operating out of premium showrooms. Our focus is to scale the business together whilst building on strong supplier relationships and maintaining its strong reputation.”
Outdoor Living’s Paul Margerison said: “Our dream for Outdoor Living is to be the biggest and the best business in this sector. This transaction will help us achieve that, enabling the company to expand further and fulfil its full potential. Being part of this dynamic group, with nationwide distribution infrastructure and exceptional online expertise, will help enable Outdoor Living to maximise on future opportunities in this growing market.”
Fellow Outdoor Living shareholder Kevin Newby added: “This transaction is great news for the business, its future and our brilliant team. Selling a business is definitely a rollercoaster, but we have got where we wanted to be, thanks to BCMS.”
Outdoor Living is already the largest UK player of its type. As such, a key task for BCMS was to identify strategic buyers looking to expand into new growth markets, and this is where BCMS added significant value, as Paul Margerison explains: “Without a shadow of a doubt, this deal would not have happened without BCMS, who were fantastic. We couldn’t have had a better team of advisors, and they opened our eyes to the many minefields and hurdles in the business sale process. BCMS’ expertise, knowledge and experience were crucial. While we did look at other buyers, we felt they couldn’t help us achieve our aims. In Buy It Direct, BCMS found us a buyer who had everything we wanted and more.”
BCMS Corporate and Freeths were financial and legal counsel to the sellers, respectively. The BCMS team advising on the deal were Rob Goulding, Andy Denny and Parik Bhandiwad.
Gordons LLP acted as legal counsel to Buy It Direct Ltd.
