Dunedin Capital Files Away Filofax –

Dunedin Capital Partners, U.K. independent private equity investor, has backed Charles Letts & Co. (Letts), a desk and pocket diary manufacturer, in its GBP17 million acquisition of Filofax Group. Bank of Scotland has provided senior debt, working capital and mezzanine for the transaction. The deal comes just 11 months after Dunedin backed the GBP17 million management buyout of Letts. Filofax Group produces time management organizers.

Letts’s purchase of Filofax from previous owner Day Runner Inc. creates a global time management products group with consolidated annual revenue of GBP55 million. Letts’s combined groups boast eight foreign subsidiaries, a distribution network covering 30 countries and six retail units – two in London, two in New York and one each in Copenhagen and Paris.

The Letts companies involved will retain their U.K. trading identities and will trade independently – Letts from its headquarters at Dalkeith, Edinburgh, and Filofax from its premises at Burgess Hill, East Sussex.

“The transaction combines two world leading brand names in the paper-based time management market and is a logical consolidation play in an established sector,” said Gordon Presly, new group CEO and managing director of Letts. “Although Letts and Filofax are both in the same market, we do not compete with each other, and therefore are creating business breadth at the same time as consolidating our position.”

Dougal Bennett, director of Dunedin Capital Partners, said, “Dunedin recognized early on that there would be attractive synergies in bringing Filofax and Letts together. The enlarged business will be ideally placed to leverage off its two leading brand names, capitalizing on a significant presence in complementary market segments. We are delighted to continue to support Letts as it develops into a global business.”