Gresham buys Johnson Clothing

Gresham has acquired Johnson Clothing from Johnson Service Group in a £82.5m (US$164m) management buyout.

KPMG advised Gresham. Debt was provided by Lloyds TSB, Barclays, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Johnson Clothing will be renamed Dimensions Clothing and is made up of five companies: Dimensions, DCC, Boyd Cooper, Wessex Textiles and Yaffy.

The MBO is not the first time Gresham has bought part of the business. In July 2004, Gresham sold Dimensions to JSG after four years of ownership.

Headquartered in the East Midlands, Johnson Clothing processes more than one million garments per month for private sectors including retail, financing and healthcare, with public sectors bodies including the ambulance service and the police. Clients include HBOS, Lloyds TSB, M&A, NHS, the Post Office, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.

Gresham said that the corporate wear market is currenty worth more than £450m per year.