Global Chairman and CEO Rod Young wrote to franchisees stating that the current shareholders would be selling their investment in the cartridge franchise.
The letter from Young, seen by The Recycler, is entitled ‘Developments at Cartridge World’, and states that in late 2014 the Cartridge World (CW) board of directors “decided that during 2015 the timing would be right for the current shareholders to sell their investment in the company”. This will enable the company to “recapitalise and have a new ownership structure established”.
Young states the board asked both he and Bill Swanson, Cartridge World’s Global CFO and North American CEO, to “seek expressions of interest”, and “while no transaction has been completed” Young, Swanson and the board “felt it appropriate to advise you of progress to date”. The company has been presented “with numerous expressions of interest and have received several bona-fide offers for the CW business”, with the “industry alignment and economic and commercial stature of those interested in acquiring our company” said to be “impressive”.
There is “a desire from all interested parties to keep the existing management in place and importantly, support and contribute to the key initiatives outlined in the CW Vision Statement conveyed to the network earlier this year”. Young goes on to say that “we have carefully evaluated these offers to determine which offer would best ‘fit’ and contribute most value to the CW business and its franchise network while meeting the commercial expectations of the existing shareholders”.
He reveals that “as a result of this review, we have now entered into an exclusive arrangement to finalise a transaction. While there is much to do before any sale of this nature could be completed, Bill and I believe a transaction with the right organisation will result in a fully-integrated business with a substantial capability to deliver the best of outcomes and herald a new horizon of opportunity for our franchise owners, master franchisees, Cartridge World team members, supply partners and other stakeholders. We will of course keep you updated as events unfold”.