Equity investor Endless set to buy Menzies Distribution
Private equity investor Endless is set to buy Menzies Distribution from John Menzies for £74.5m.
Headquartered in Edinburgh, Menzies Distribution Limited (MDL) operates one of the UK biggest overnight time-critical logistics networks in the UK. The company employs around 3,700 people across more than 50 sites in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
The company’s core business is providing distribution for newspaper and magazine publishers, but it has also built up its parcel delivery services through a series of acquisitions over the past couple of years. Last year, for example, Menzies Distribution bought Gnewt Cargo, the London-based delivery firm which operates the UK’s largest all-electric commercial vehicle fleet.
In a statement posted on its website, Endless said its “acquisition of MDL will enable the business to build on its successful growth and diversification strategy, working in long-term partnership with publishers to secure a sustainable route to market for their product and further support building and harnessing MDL’s UK network to partner with national parcel carriers and become a provider of choice to the retail sector”.
The proposed acquisition will have to be approved by the shareholders of John Menzies and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission in Ireland.
Endless said that will issue more information when the deal is completed.
As Post&Parcel readers will know, John Menzies has been looking to sell Menzies Distribution for some time. In 2017, the company was involved in lengthy negotiations with the DX Group – but these ultimately petered out and were called off in August.
John Menzies has two logistics arms – the ground-based MDI and the aviation specialist, Menzies Aviation.
In its own official statement on the deal with Endless, John Menzies said that the disposal of MDI will “create a pure play, focused global leader in aviation service” and allow the company to “focus its management and capital resources entirely on expanding its position in the structurally growing aviation services market”.
