Kwik- fit sold for £650m, previous owner bought for £800m 6 years ago but it has already flogged the Insurance side.
Changes ? or just the same at your local Kwik-fit - we will just need to wait and see!
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Perhaps the fitters will ritually commit suicide if they make a mistake?
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Will they bow deeply to me and call me Zero San?
I will wear my Hachimaki headband when I crash my Mitsubishi through the front doors, kamikaze style, for my brake appointment.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 3 Mar 11 at 11:51
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>> Will they bow deeply to me and call me Zero San?
>>
>> I will wear my Hachimaki headband when I crash my Mitsubishi through the front doors,
>> kamikaze style, for my brake appointment.
>>
Shooting Brake surely.
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Well I guess this means no more Yokohamas for KF, but the new Japanese corp have their own tyre manufacturing business anyway.
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>> Kwik- fit sold for £650m, previous owner bought for £800m 6 years ago but it
>> has already flogged the Insurance side.
>>
Previous owners were private equity group PAI Partners of France.
Another company in their UK portfolio is UB (United Biscuits).
Kwik-Fit, founded by Tom Farmer, was listed on the stock market before it was sold to Ford for about £1bn in 1999.
Ford sold Kwik-Fit to CVC for £330m in 2002.
PAI paid about £800m to buy it from private equity firm CVC Capital Partners in 2005.
PAI last year sold Kwik-Fit Insurance Services to Ageas of Belgium for £215m.
Another £150m was realised by PAI from Kwik-Fit from a property deal in 2007.
Itochu Corporation has now paid for £637m for the slimmer (asset stripped) Kwik-Fit.
Other parties were interested too. Marubeni, distributor of Yokohama tyres in Europe and has a network of 24 car showrooms in Britain, was interested in Kwik-Fit after previously looking to purchase of Micheldever
Other potential rumoured bidders were Bridgestone and Michelin. Michelin owns ATS Euromaster.
>> Changes ? or just the same at your local Kwik-fit - we will just need
>> to wait and see!
>>
"People familiar with the situation say Ian Fraser, chief executive, plans to remain in his position after the sale. "
Last edited by: Suppose on Thu 3 Mar 11 at 12:32
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IN KF's early days 30 yrs ago as much / more money was made from properrtyy sales as tyres.
Companies / Distributors / outlets were bought and sold.
One transaction Tom Farmer bought about 100 outlets for millions, kept the ones he had no coverage in and flogged "the rest" - "the rest were bought by non-tyre people for redevelopment and he ended up with extra depots he needed to cover the UK map and cash in hand from the property profits - so he spent £0 and expanded the Empire.
Not bad work if you can find deals like it.
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So French owners to Japanese owners? Does this mean the discounts will be on Bridgestones rather than Michelins?
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The new Japanese buyers already own 100 x Stapleton Tyre Outlets - so they are not new to the British Tyre market.
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Prestivo is Stapleton's own brand - never heard of it but we will surely see this in a KF near you soon.
Never ever bought own brand tyres, from Kwik Fit or anywhere else, as they always looked cheap and nasty especially when it was a company car - on my own car Michelins @ Costco when on special offer were always my preference - well in the last 15/16 years since they came to Scotland.
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