Regency gains seven-figure PE investment

Private equity house Foresight Group has invested almost £2m in specialist printer Regency Design & Print and has ambitious plans to scale the business.

Funds advised by Foresight have put £1.9m into the Godstone-based printing company.

Regency’s product range includes point-of-sale graphics, car wrapping and vending machines, and it has also created a market-leading niche in the production of ‘coffee pods’ – branded beverage stations to house counter top coffee machines.

The firm’s customer base includes a number of blue-chip clients in the FMCG space, including Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Jacobs Douwe Egberts and Lucozade Ribena Suntory.

Foresight said it would work with Regency directors David Harkness and Julian Simpson to “bolster the management team bandwidth” with the appointment of a new chairman and financial director.

“This enhanced team will help Regency to improve its operations, creating a robust and scalable platform able to deliver the significant pipeline of identified orders over the coming years, as well as exploring new growth opportunities” it said in a statement.

Harkness described it as “an important stage in the company’s development”.

“We have a huge opportunity to really accelerate the business by delivering on the pipeline, moving into new geographies and adding more blue-chip clients,” he said.

Foresight partner Matt Smith added: “We look forward to working with the management team to scale the business, taking advantage of the growth opportunities presented in the UK and Europe.”

Regency Design & Print operates from a 3,720sqm facility and operates a range of processes, including screen printing and digital printing. Earlier this year it added a second Screen Truepress Jet W3200UV HS wide-format printer.

The firm was founded in 1986, has sales of circa £7m and employs around 40 staff. 

Foresight has £375m of private equity assets under management, and has been involved with more than 150 high-growth SME businesses over the past 30 years.