Sales manager Natasha Scott and production manager Gareth Kerr have acquired a 90% stake in the business from CEO and founder John Laidler.

While Laidler said he initially considered selling the Newcastle-based wide-format business to an external buyer, in the end he decided an MBO was the best fit.

“My staff are like family having been with me for a long time, I knew deep down I would never be comfortable selling the business to investors.

“By doing it this way, we can safeguard its independence for the long term as well as providing some reassurance to our long-standing clients that it is business as usual.”

To illustrate the business as usual point, while the deal completed at the end of May, it’s just now being officially announced as a result of Scott only returning from maternity leave a couple of weeks ago, following the birth of her daughter in February.

“The timing’s maybe a bit mad, but it had to be done,” quipped Scott, who joined the business straight from school around a decade ago as an apprentice.

“If someone had said ten years ago that this could happen, I probably would have laughed them out the door.”

According to Scott, Laidler had always been very open about his thoughts for exiting the business at some point and just before the pandemic he approached her and Kerr, who are now managing director and production director respectively, about the possibility of them leading an MBO at the seven-staff business.

However, the plan was mothballed during Covid, with talks restarting late last year – around the same time Scott discovered she was expecting her first child.

“I thought it might put a spanner in the works, me being pregnant; it didn’t," she said.

“When opportunity knocks you’ve got to make that jump.”

Like Scott, fellow director and MBO partner Kerr has a long history with the business, which started life as a photo lab in the late 1980s, before pivoting to wide-format digital in the early noughties – around the same time he joined.

Kerr said that the firm has “ambitious growth plans over the next few years” and is looking to potentially bolster its production firepower, which centres around a Canon Arizona 6170 XTS flatbed and a Colorado 1650 roll-to-roll printer, as well as adding a second Zünd cutting table.

“Our main goals are to continue to increase turnover, grow the customer base and if that happens then we’ll look at more staff,” said Scott.

“We want to help others at the beginning of their career and carry on the ethos of the company that John created,” added Kerr.

LPW’s client roster includes local councils, North East businesses, universities, museums and design agencies with the business specialising in posters, digital wallpaper, banner stands, exhibition displays, indoor and outdoor billboards, and building hoarding panels.

As a result of handing the reins to Kerr and Scott, founder Laidler, while retaining a 10% stake, has switched to a part-time, non-exec role but will remain available to support the MBO pair for the next couple of years.

“He’s still going to be here, we’re not letting him off that easy, he’s still got a bit of graft to do,” said Scott.