ISIS leads Kafevend MBO

ISIS Equity Partners ("ISIS") is pleased to announce its funding of the Management Buy-Out ("MBO) of Kafevend Group Ltd ("Kafevend") from IKON Office Solutions plc ("IKON"). Kafevend, based in Crawley, is a leading supplier of vending services to the UK wide SME market. Kafevend supplies vending machines to any size of office or department in the UK. Kafevend prides itself on a comprehensive follow up service including the supply of drinks and servicing. It has broad UK coverage from offices in Crawley, Enfield, Leeds and Bristol. It targets SMEs which are often new users of vending solutions. Most of the machines are hot and cold drinks vending machines, but Kafevend also supplies snack, can and bottle vending machines plus Tana branded plumbed in filtered water dispensers. The equity funding for the acquisition was provided by ISIS in return for a majority equity stake. Debt funding for the acquisition was provided by The Royal Bank of Scotland. Kafevend currently has 71 employees and its head office will remain in Crawley. Over 4,000 businesses rely on their daily beverages from vending machines supplied and serviced by Kafevend. IKON is a leading UK supplier of office equipment and a subsidiary of IKON Office Solutions Inc. Kafevend was IKON's only vending operation and was viewed as a non-core operation. IKON was advised by Clearwater Corporate Finance LLP. The MBO was led by Kafevend CEO John Collins. He commented, "Whilst Kafevend has experienced good growth in recent years as a subsidiary of IKON, I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead a management buy-out. New vending products are now much better than many consumers expect and we are seeing strong take up from companies that historically have not used vending machines. Even small companies can benefit from the convenience of high quality vended drinks to replace the hassle of using kettles. The funding package from ISIS will allow us to accelerate our future growth strategy." The investment by ISIS was delivered by Andrew Garside and Peter Watt. Garside added, "We were very impressed by the focus and ambition of the management team at Kafevend. The business targets a specific area of the market, being SMEs, and puts high importance on high quality aftercare. For example, if there is ever a fault with a machine, Kafevend's network of service engineers can rectify this within a few hours. We will be working hard with the team to develop opportunities to grow the business." Andrew Garside from ISIS will join the board of Kafevend.

Published: 06 October, 2005