Precise Component Manufacture Ltd (PCML), a precision engineering specialist has undergone a management buyout with the help of Total Capital Partners which provided a complete equity and debt funding package to back the business and facilitate the exit of the retiring shareholders.

Utilising its single source funding model Total Capital is providing £17 million of equity and debt and will take an 85% equity stake in the business.

Headquartered in Cambridgeshire and with five manufacturing sites in East Anglia, PCML provides rapid-turnaround manufacturing of complex custom components and assemblies to clients in R&D intensive industries, with an increasing focus on the bio-tech and medical sectors. The business has doubled in size in the last four years with turnover increasing from £6.5 million in 2016 to £13 million in 2020.

Total Capital Partners plans to further accelerate the growth of the business by making targeted acquisitions and strengthening its core activities, accreditations and market share in the bio science, medical, scientific equipment and high tech industrial sectors. PCML’s strategic aim is to become the UK’s leading biomedical science manufacturing hub.

PCML has demonstrated resilient trading during the last year and has continued full operations throughout the Vovid-19 crisis. Importantly, it played a leading role in the ventilator project during the first wave of the pandemic in the UK in the spring of 2020. In addition, PCML manufactures and assembles devices for leading biomedical customers developing Coronavirus and other diagnostic testing equipment.

The UK market for high-precision engineering is estimated to be in the region of £5.9 billion per annum. The rising global demand for machined components is being driven by continued technological advancement and a shift towards smart manufacturing.

Customers are increasingly looking for dynamic and flexible supply chains with rapid turnaround and customised specifications. PCML is a highly evolved business, leveraging its technology, IT operating platform and automated processes to provide the manufacturing agility that clients require along with rapid turnaround, design and technical input and market leading engineering capabilities.

Paul Brown, partner at Total Capital said: “PCML is an innovative, Industry 4.0 manufacturing business operating in Cambridge, the home of Europe’s largest technology cluster.

This forward-looking, agile engineering business is serving some of the most exciting developments in the UK biomedical space as well as innovations in other sectors. We are really impressed with the PCML team and their strategic goals and we look forward to supporting them and driving the growth of the business.”

PCML managing director Nadine Bishop (pictured) said: “Total Capital Partners has provided a flexible equity and debt solution that really suits PCML’s needs. The company understands our business and sees the tremendous opportunities ahead for us.

“What is important is that the funding solution can adapt and flex to enable our business to achieve its growth plans — we are delighted to Total Capital Partners on board.”