Big plans for car valet company after buy-out

Apr 28 2008 by Iain Laing, The Journal

NEW bosses at a North-East car valeting company hope to create around 200 jobs across the UK after buying the business from its founder.

Steve Harrison launched Washington-based Interclean in 1990 and built it up from working largely with Sunderland-based Reg Vardy to servicing around 200 motor dealerships spread from Kent to Aberdeen.

But now Harrison has sold his business to the company’s accountant Derek Smith and its national operations manager Ken Gardener and together they plan to grow it even bigger.

They want to step up its £8m turnover by around 20% a year and boost its current workforce of more than 400 to take on around 200 staff over the next couple of years.

Mr Smith, who joined Interclean in 1999, said: “We are a national company with considerable scope for expansion. We want to grow as fast as we can.

“In terms of numbers of franchised dealerships, we service 200, of which about 50 are in the North-East, but there are more than 4,000 in the UK, so there’s plenty of potential for growth.

“Steve gradually handed over the reins to me and Ken and he had a very strong desire to sell to his current management team rather than another company. He will stay on as a director, which will provide us with more continuity.’’

Interclean supplies teams of sub-contracted valeters to dealerships to prepare new and used cars for sale, and also supplies paint and fabric protection products.

It uses sub-contracted valeters to service customers which include large dealer groups such as Pendragon and Newcastle-based Vertu Motors, cleaning about 500,000 cars a year.

The company is already one of the five biggest in its field in the UK and plans to win more business from dealers looking to outsource their valeting or from rivals who may focus more on price than quality, said Mr Gardener.

He added: “Most of our new business comes from word-of-mouth within the industry and that’s because we put great emphasis on quality of service. We have a policy of putting more area managers out into the field than our competitors, to liaise with customers and check on standards and, while this might cost us more, it means we can maintain quality.’’

The management team was advised by Newcastle commercial law firm Muckle LLP, accountants Baker Tilly and was financed by Royal Bank of Scotland.

Muckle LLP corporate finance partner Matt Collen said: “This is an excellent deal for the new owners and the vendor. It provides the company with continuity of management and strategy for its future growth.’’

Chris Acaster, senior relationship manager at RBS, said: “We are delighted to continue our long-standing relationship with Interclean through this change of ownership.

“We have provided a bespoke funding package to support both the acquisition and the future working capital requirements to enable this business to continue its growth plans.”

Angela Toner, corporate finance partner at Baker Tilly, said: “We are delighted to have been able to secure the deal for Derek and Ken. They know the industry very well and I’m pleased to see their continued success.”