Macro Art wins fresh capital to further growth

Macro Art is aiming for £18m turnover from its recently-expanded premises
Macro Art is aiming for £18m turnover from its recently-expanded premises

Macro Art has secured £3.3m in additional working capital after proving its continued growth following an MBO in 2014.

The St Neots-based wide-format printer was sold to a team comprising then-managing director James Jennings, then-commercial director Michael Green and sales director Matthew Guise with backing from YFM Equity Partners following the death of founder John Walker in 2013.

With Green now at the helm, Independent Growth Finance (IGF) has supplied a further seven-figure sum of capital after outgrowing its initial funding. It now employs more than 100 members of staff and has pushed its turnover from £6m to £14m since the MBO.

The finance was secured prior to the coronavirus lockdown.

Green said: “The business has seen significant growth over the last five years, so much so that we outgrew our finance.

“This new provision from IGF has provided the working capital we need to create exceptional visual communications on a huge scale – enabling brands to drive awareness, spark conversations, and delight their consumers.”

Since receiving funding from IGF, Macro Art has invested heavily in improvements within its manufacturing and production lines, including new software to quote for jobs more efficiently and incorporate supplier fees. It has also invested in workflows, speeding up processing of imagery through its factory.

The company is now aiming for an £18m turnover in the next three years.

Its last burst of investment came in 2018, when the company added two Durst machines to its portfolio and increased its factory size to 4,088sqm.