Elaghmore acquires Formaplex

Image courtesy Formaplex

Established nearly 20 years ago and with revenues in excess of £60 million, Formaplex operates from four manufacturing sites based across the South Coast of England. The business started as a specialist tooling partner for the F1 motorsport sector before adding injection mould tooling and moulding to its skillset and developing its sought-after expertise in composite components. Formaplex employs over 500 employees, and, following the acquisition, the business will continue to be led by Mike Bryant, CEO.

Formaplex serves a blue-chip customer base and manufactures world-class accredited lightweight component solutions for tier-one automotive clients and prestigious OEMs across global market sectors.

Recent examples that have cemented its reputation for high quality and rapid product delivery are production lightweight carbon fibre body panels for super cars, the prototype development of the complete structural tub for a new hypercar, fan case liners for a new carbon fibre jet engine programme, complex high performance injection moulded parts for the luxury car sector and components for surgical robots.

Formaplex fits Elaghmore’s investment strategy to use its executive team’s proven operational skills to deliver significant growth and value creation. Through its hands-on approach and capital support, Elaghmore believes Formaplex can deliver substantial growth in the mid to long term across automotive and the other sectors it services through its high end, precision engineering offering.

Elaghmore has made a strong start to 2021, having also acquired Orchard House Foods on 14 January, which was the fund’s largest acquisition to date.

In total, Elaghmore has now made eleven acquisitions, with the Formaplex deal being the second from Elaghmore Fund 1A. Elaghmore first launched its initial fund in December 2016 with a raise of £60 million from institutions in the US and Europe. In December 2020, Elaghmore raised a further £30 million from US institutions to create Elaghmore Fund 1A.

Nine of Elaghmore’s previous acquisitions have been combined to create three distinct businesses: Total Vehicle Solutions Group; Alucraft/ EAG Group; and Hexcite Group. Like Orchard House Foods, Formaplex is a standalone investment for Elaghmore. Together, Elaghmore businesses have a combined annual turnover of £230 million and employ more than 1,400 people across the UK, Ireland & Europe.

Andy Ducker, Co-Founder, Elaghmore, said: “Formaplex has developed a global reputation for high-quality, precision engineering. We believe it has significant potential for continued growth in all sectors it services. More and more businesses across the automotive, motorsport, aerospace and defence sectors are looking for lightweight solutions to replace traditional component materials to increase efficiency and lessen their environmental impact.  We look forward to being part of this growth by providing Mike and the team with financial and operational support.

“This transaction follows our recent acquisition of Orchard House Foods and shows our deal pipeline is full of interesting opportunities. Elaghmore is well-placed to help traditionally successful companies that have been impacted by COVID-19, especially as Government support schemes end and bank support is limited.”

Mike Bryant, CEO, Formaplex, said: “This is a fantastic new partnership that will take Formaplex to the next level. There are so many opportunities across multiple sectors for our lightweight engineering solutions to be applied to and having the support of Elaghmore behind us makes for some truly exciting prospects.”