“We built a close relationship with Ian, Amar, Will and Harri over 18 months and became confident they were the right partner to help us deliver our ambitious expansion plans, particularly in the US.”

Clem Connor, CEO, Western Global

Western Global

western-global.com
Partnership investment to replace passive shareholders and support international growth.

The business

Global leader in the design and distribution of liquid storage solutions.

The deal

Western Global was founded in 1962 and had been run as a family business until 2014 when a new management team was appointed. During this phase, the business transformed its scale and profitability. By 2019, it had become clear that a sponsor was required to provide liquidity to the family shareholder base no longer in the business, put equity in the hands of the management team who had transformed the business, and help drive further penetration in the US market where the business had begun to have significant traction. After 18 months and staying in touch through Covid, MML invested alongside Clem and his team in early 2021. We are now working alongside the team to deliver their international growth plan, in particular leveraging our US presence to support greenfield expansion.

Fund
Partnership Capital
Region
Europe
Deal Status
Current
Sector
Industrials

Catch up with CEO, Clem Connor, six months post investment.

How did you get into the industry?

I came across Western Global in 2015 whilst working in Bristol. The business had developed a market leading product offering significant operational and environmental benefits and already had operations in North America from its family ownership. I felt there was a really exciting opportunity to help consolidate the business into a single group and drive international growth.

How did you come to partner with MML?

We were first introduced to MML in 2019 and it felt like a natural fit from the start. We wanted a UK partner who could help us unlock growth in the US and were really encouraged by how MML bought into our vision and their track record of supporting international expansion. We launched a formal process in March 2020, with MML one of the front runners. However, the pandemic had other ideas and we had to put our process on hold. Ultimately it was MML who stayed close to us through that intervening period and were out in front when we successfully relaunched our process in late 2020.

How is it going in the US?

We are making significant progress. With MML’s support, we have been able to add significant sales resource across the US and we are in the process of opening three new delivery centres to reduce our lead times. Off the back of these investments and the general momentum in the business, we are trading significantly ahead of our year one plan.

Featured videos
Play Video

A testimonial from Magnus Hammick, COO of Green Biofuels, one of Western Global’s largest UK customers, highlighting how their products are enabling change on ESG and decarbonisation.

Play Video

A testimonial from Chris West, Safety Director of Brent Scarborough Co. explaining the merits of the Western Global Trans Cube.

Related news

Western Global delivers 40% revenue growth and completes refinance to return half MML’s investment within 12 months
MML Partnership Capital Fund VII invested in Western Global – the leading global provider of environmentally friendly industrial liquid storage and dispensing solutions – in January 2021.
MML backs Western Global in £90m transaction
Investment group MML Capital has announced it has invested £40m into Western Global, the leading provider of industrial liquid storage and dispensing solutions. The deal represents the latest in a series of transactions which has seen MML successfully complete 15 transactions in the last 12 months.

Associated deal team

Ian Wallis

co-CEO
Europe / US

Amar Shanghavi

Investment Director
Europe

William Stewart

Investment Director
Europe

MML investor portal logins

For investors in MML Fund VI, MML Ireland I & MML Ireland II

For investors in MML Fund VII