Peter Sephton will remain chairman and CEO, with Andrew Nisbet, the company’s founder, serving as a non-executive director on the Nisbets advisory board within Bunzl. The Nisbets leadership team will remain in place and it is expected that Nisbets will continue to operate separately from Bunzl. The stake has been sold by Key West Holdings, which holds the Nisbet family’s business interests.
Mr Sephton said: “We are delighted to announce this agreement with Bunzl today. Based on our extensive engagement with them over the past months, it became clear that both parties have a shared vision and a commitment to customers and colleagues that will build on Nisbets’s heritage and growth strategy.
“The acquisition will help drive our strategy for growth by bringing both strategic and operational value to Nisbets. We are looking forward to working together to execute this strategy and to delivering the next phase of growth.”
Nisbets has not yet published financial accounts for 2023, but Bunzl revealed that unaudited figures show it made pre-tax profits of £40m on sales of £498m last year. Total gross assets were £242m. Bunzl supplies a broad range of internationally and responsibly sourced non-food products to a variety of market sectors in more than 30 countries. Nisbets supplies more than 31,000 items of professional kitchen equipment to restaurants, hotels, bars, and the hospitality industry generally, and the deal will support the existing Nisbets management team to deliver the next phase of growth. Nisbets has 25 retail outlets in the UK, 11 in Australia and one retail outlet in the Republic of Ireland, as well as offices in UK, Ireland, Holland, France, Australia, New Zealand, China and India.
The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approval.