Entrepreneur Graham Darnell, owner of OTIF Group, has acquired Barnsley-based John Truswell & Sons (Garage) Limited, a family-run company which has a fleet of 70 trucks and 180 trailers. Truswell specialises in distribution across the UK and offers warehousing services.
This latest acquisition is OTIF’s third in five years, following the acquisition of Kenyon in 2016 and Adam Jones in 2019. All were led by Watersheds, and Royds Withy King also supported the Adam Jones acquisition.
Graham Darnell said he was delighted with the opportunities Watersheds brought him, after he expressed a desire to strengthen OTIF’s coverage in the north of the UK.
“I started this acquisition journey with Watersheds five years ago, and we have built up a great relationship over that time,” said Graham.
“They understand exactly the type of business I am looking for and once again have delivered what they promised. Despite the pandemic, they somehow managed to bring me an impressive variety of opportunities, all of which were interesting. In the end, though, it was John Truswell & Sons that caught my eye. Like the other acquisitions Watersheds have arranged and completed for me, it is an off market, strongly performing, highly reputable family business.
“It was particularly important to me that I could continue to focus on running OTIF Group, so once again having Watersheds negotiate the deal, raise the funds and project-manage the process throughout was crucial. There were many parties involved, including three sets of lawyers, funders, property valuers, asset valuers and two sets of accountants, so it was complex, yet they still managed to achieve a completion date within three months of agreeing heads of terms.
Wendy Lam, a partner at Watersheds, said the firm is delighted to help Graham continue this exciting journey.
“I am pleased we were able to assist Graham again by finding another very successful business that will make a great addition to OTIF Group,” said Wendy.
“This has been one of the smoothest transactions to date and a big contributing factor has been the collaboration with Royds Withy King. Watersheds have worked with Katharine’s team on a number of deals in the past and both understand how critical it is to have the right advisors who will work in partnership, if you want a successful outcome. Graham has a great advisory team behind him, and we look forward to the next chapter together.”