Disposal of Neal’s Yard to Peter Kindersley

DATE
December 2005

TRANSACTION TYPE
Corporate Disposal

VALUE
£ Undisclosed

SECTOR
Retail & Leisure

Spayne Lindsay & Co. advises Neal’s Yard Remedies on its sale to the Kindersley family.

The shareholders of Neal‟s Yard Remedies (“NYR”), led by founder and majority shareholder Romy Fraser, have agreed to the sale of the company to Peter Kindersley and his family for an undisclosed sum.

NYR is a manufacturer and retailer of natural cosmetics, medicines and remedies. The company currently has 24 UK stores (15 owned, 9 franchised), distribution in retail outlets across the UK, a growing mail order business and a successful international business, in particular in Japan. The company moved from its previous manufacturing site in Battersea to a new facility in Gillingham, Dorset, in May last year. NYR has a particularly strong brand in its sector and is renowned for the authenticity and integrity of its products and methods.

Spayne Lindsay & Co. worked closely with the company as it considered its options with regard to a sale. It was strongly felt that, although realising full value for the company was an important requirement, the company should only be sold to a buyer that truly had an affinity with the brand and its values, and a long term view to its development. Romy Fraser also intended to maintain a meaningful stake in the company, as well as a board position.

Spayne Lindsay believed that such partners would most likely come from high net worth individual / family office investor community. Through our network in this area, we quickly established Peter Kindersley as a suitable and interested buyer. Peter Kindersley is a founder and former major shareholder in the publisher Dorling Kindersley, and is now the owner of Sheepdrove Organic Farm, one of the largest organic farms in the UK. His strong support for the natural, organic movement in the consumer sector is also shown through his membership of the Soil Association and his investment in Planet Organic, the chain of London-based organic food stores.

Spayne Lindsay is strategically focused on developing its investment banking activities in the high growth sectors of alternative health and nutrition, specifically targeting „authentic‟ companies led by innovative management teams, which require financial advisory input and expansion capital. The NYR transaction is therefore considered an important franchise-building transaction for the firm.