DTE Corporate Finance advises Countrywide on its sale to Dwyer

BACKGROUND

With its Head Office based in Cheadle, Manchester, Countrywide offers a range of commercial grass cutting, landscape maintenance, sports grounds maintenance and winter gritting services. Founded by Martin Stott in 1985, it is a family-owned business that has grown into a nationwide provider of grounds maintenance with over 50 franchisees.

The group consists of a number of subsidiaries including Countrywide Grounds Maintenance Limited and Countrywide Garden Maintenance Services Limited.

Dwyer is a portfolio company of The Riverside Company, a global private equity firm.

BUSINESS NEEDS

The buyer had been courting Countrywide for some time. There were, however, different views and interpretations of value due to the corporate structure, the growth of the franchise operation and the SME nature of how the cash generative business had been run.

As such, DTE saw there was a need to bring some formality and structure to the discussions and negotiations.

DTE SOLUTION

The three key components to value were the maintainable earnings, the working capital movements and the surplus cash.

Presentation and accuracy of the presented financial information was critical for both Countrywide, in terms of negotiation, and Dwyer, in terms of getting comfortable with the scale of the acquisition.

The deal marked the 10th acquisition for Dwyer which at that point had 19 service based brands with over 2,850 franchisees across North America, UK and Germany.