ByBox secures £37.5m worth of investment from LDC

Lloyds Development Capital (LD) – the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group – has provided £37.5m of acquisition and development capital to support the MBO and international growth strategy of ByBox. The transaction values the ByBox business at £105m.

ByBox provides technology-enabled locker-based solutions which its clients can use to ensure that mission-critical parts can be despatched to reach field engineers.

The company’s proprietary software, Thinventory, connects ByBox’s network of smart boxes in nearly 900 locations with its hub in Coventry and nine distribution centres across the UK.

In addition, ByBox has a B2C Click&Collect network of electronic lockers which spans 27 countries.

The ByBox leadership team includes: CEO Stuart Miller, who co-founded the business in Silicon Valley in 2000; co-founder COO Steve Huxter; co-founder Dan Turner MD Click&Collect and CFO Pete Rowse.

LDC has invested £37.5million for a “significant” stake in the business, and a banking syndicate led by RBS provided £55m senior debt facilities plus additional CapEx and working capital facilities to support the transaction.

Yann Souillard, LDC Managing Director for the South, and Alastair Weinel, LDC Investment Director, will both join the board alongside Martin Hiscox as Chairman.

ByBox has an existing annual turnover of around £73m.

The investment will support ByBox’s continued organic growth in the UK, especially in areas such as smart metering. It will also help ByBox significantly accelerate its global technology deployment, expand its technical courier proposition and continue to develop its Click&Collect service.

ByBox’s Miller commented: “Our business is rewiring the supply chain to help the companies that maintain the UK’s infrastructure better meet the increasingly high expectations of consumers through innovative solutions. Our ambition is to take this concept truly global through a combination of software, technology and infrastructure.”