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Tayburn

Tayburn MBO completed as four-strong team takes control of agency

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

November 15, 2007 | 2 min read

Scottish design industry stalwart Erick Davidson has sold his design consultancy Tayburn to a management buyout team after months of speculation that such a deal was in the pipeline.

The MBO team is made up of managing director Simon Farrell, financial director Bill Davidson, corporate director Steven Mitchell and creative director Malcolm Stewart all of whom now have an equal shareholding in the business. Private equity firm Noble Grossart will also remain as an external investor.

Davidson is due to step down from his executive role over the course of the next 12 months, but will retain a connection to the company as non-exec chairman.

“I’m delighted that this opportunity has arisen for myself and the rest of the team,” said Farrell. “The whole process has been handled in a seamless way and there will be no visible change for our staff or clients. Bill, Malcolm, Steve and I have been working closely together for the past two years and this deal is more about committing to our current strategy rather than any big change in direction.

“Tayburn has a strong reputation, a good track record and fantastic client list and we will be looking to continue to build on those foundations. However, we are committed to making that reputation even stronger. We are also committed to our ethos of ‘ideas that make a difference’ and this is proving effective in our core areas of corporate identity, annual reports and brand packaging.

“On top of this we are looking to invest in our online offer and the Manchester office which will help create new platforms of growth for the future.”

The sale of Tayburn will come as little surprise to many in the Scottish design sector as it has been widely believed that Davidson’s long to medium-term objective since appointing Farrell as managing director back in 2005 was to retire from the agency business.

Commenting on the sale Davidson said: “This is great news for Tayburn, for the new team and for me. I’ve always believed that the people running the company should own the company and this move ensures that Tayburn will remain an independent company and in good hands.”

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