18th October 2018
The Car Buying Group (TCBG), one of the UK’s largest independent consumer car buying companies, has been acquired by Aston Barclay.
Roger Esler and Paul Herriott from Dow Schofield Watts’ Corporate Finance Team in Yorkshire & the North East advised TCBG and its shareholders on the sale.
Selling over 10,000 cars nationwide on behalf of car owners, TCBG has been at the forefront of the online consumer car buying revolution since 2014. It features at number 20 in the 2018 Sunday Times Tech Track 100 list of the fastest-growing private technology companies and was voted the 2017 Northern Tech 100 League Table fastest-growing tech company.
The deal will enable Aston Barclay, which is backed by private equity firm Rutland Partners, to widen the breadth of new products and services it offers to its customers, while TCBG will benefit from the group’s strong IT reputation for launching new technologies designed and developed in-house.
Aston Barclay’s new Wakefield Mega Centre will become home to TCBG, with current CEO Tom Marley moving his 30-strong team to the 18-acre site when it opens in quarter four. Tom will continue to run the business with his current management team and there are plans to double the size of the company and its workforce over the coming years.
Tom Marley, CEO of The Car Buying Group, said: “We have had a great journey over the past few years in launching and building the business. Becoming part of the Aston Barclay family will provide further support and investment to speed up that growth, and for our brand to become a household name with consumers.
Roger was a great support throughout the whole process, always on hand for practical and real world advice. He understood our position and our business and represented us as such…. fighting our corner with tenacity when appropriate. We always view our business relationships as partnerships and during this transaction it felt like DSW was a partner to us, on hand to talk us through even the finest point, explaining all in the process.”
Roger Esler commented: “This is a great example of a strategic, value accretive acquisition and in this case it has involved one of Yorkshire’s rising stars. It will be interesting to watch the impact the TCBG has on the Aston Barclay group.”
TCBG was also advised by Freeths LLP and the Tax Advisory Partnership.
Khalid Sheikh, Chairman of The Car Buying Group said: “Rogers availability throughout the whole sale process was impeccable, and his considerable experience was in clear evidence in navigating us through the whole transaction.”