WESTBRIDGE has acquired a majority shareholding in and provided growth capital to Wilcomatic Limited (Wilcomatic), one of the UK’s leading providers of vehicle and rail wash systems.
Established in 1967, Wilcomatic supplies and supports vehicle wash systems to petrol forecourts throughout the UK and has contracts with all the UK’s major supermarkets. The company also supplies a full range of other ancillary forecourt equipment including jet wash systems, vacuum units, tyre inflation equipment, and water recycling systems.
Wilcomatic currently has 3,000 machines in the market and has plans to double this estate over the next three years.
Wilcomatic is developing a strong presence in the rail market, supplying rail wash systems to rail depots in the UK and to international markets, particularly India, Malaysia and other Asian countries. The business is widely viewed as a market leader in this niche and has long-standing relationships with Siemens, Bombardier, Hitachi and Volker Fitzpatrick.
Key to Wilcomatic’s success is its ability to support, service and maintain all its equipment in the field utilising its 60-strong team of field service engineers. This service support is provided under multi-year contracts with strong performance yardsticks.
The transaction was led by WestBridge Partner, Sandy Smart with support from James Wakefield and Ed Minton
Sandy Smart said:
“Wilcomatic is a long established, well-run business which enjoys strong relationships with an impressive blue-chip client base, at home and internationally. It is a market leader in its niche, yet we believe still has significant opportunity to expand its market footprint.
“We look forward to working with the team at Wilcomatic to exploit these opportunities and grow the business further.”
Selwyn Rodrigues and Kevin Pay, joint managing directors, will continue to lead the team at Wilcomatic and commented:
"We are delighted to have partnered with WestBridge. They quickly identified our market strengths and the quality of our income streams, particularly from contracted revenues. WestBridge will bring management experience, investment strength and a strong focus on achieving our ambitious growth plans.”
Tom Kelleher at Capital Law acted as legal adviser to WestBridge while Crowe carried out financial due diligence and BDO advised on structuring. Commercial due diligence was provided by CIL.
Steve Barry of Evolution CBS advised the vendors while Maung Aye at Mackrell Turner Garrett provided legal advice.
