Peter Black, the Yorkshire firm which supplies shoes, handbags and gift packs to Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Next, has been sold by Leeds-based fund Endless to Chinese trading giant Li & Fung.
The deal, which values Keighley-based Peter Black at £48m, sees it join a Hong Kong-based group which has $10bn of sales and operates Toys R Us stores in Asia as well as owning the Black Cat fireworks brand.
Endless completed the sale just 13 months after it invested in Peter Black by backing a secondary buyout led by chairman Gordon Black and chief executive Stephen Lister. The Leeds-based turnaround fund said it had made three times its initial investment in Peter Black, which has turnover of £240m.
Chief executive Mr Lister said: "We are now a truly global business – this is a landmark deal. We are strong in the UK and Li & Fung are a huge international trading business."
Gordon Black, chairman of Peter Black, said: "Throughout our 60-year history, we have a proud record of redirecting the business in line with changes in the market place. The globalisation of the supply chain for consumer products is now a reality and the timing of this change is absolutely right. The combined strengths of Li & Fung and Peter Black will sharpen our competitive edge and enable us to offer our customers a broader range of product and market leading value."
He added: "Endless showed outstanding initiative in backing Peter Black last year when others would not, and their courage and foresight have been well rewarded."
Founded by Gordon Black's father Peter in the 1940s in a factory using Army webbing to make shopping bags, the company floated on the stock market in the 1970s and went back into private ownership in 2000 in what was then the third-largest public to private deal in Britain.
Since then the firm has developed its three trading operations, footwear and accessories, beauty products and logistics and supplies some of Britain's biggest retail chains.
It deals with 210 different factories in Eastern Europe, India and the Far East and it sources and supplies products including golf gifts, remote-controlled toys, beauty and toiletry gift packs and themed gifts under the Simpsons and World Cup brands.
Its beauty business based in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, makes own-label toiletries and cosmetics for customers such as Body Shop and John Frieda, and it also owns an Italian footwear business called Lenci Calzature.
The group's logistics division, which provides warehousing and distribution for smaller retailers, has been sold to Li & Fung subsidiary Integrated Distribution Services Group, which is also listed on the Hong Kong stock market.
Li & Fung bought Standard Fireworks in Huddersfield some years ago and the business now trades under its Black Cat banner.
Darren Forshaw, partner at Endless, who led both deals, commented: "Our investment in Peter Black in 2006 was a landmark deal for Endless. We were confident that the group
offered significant strategic value to international trading houses seeking direct access to UK markets and this has been evidenced by this transaction."
The Peter Black deal last year was the largest done by £100m fund Endless since it was launched in December 2005 by former Ernst & Young insolvency partners Garry Wilson and Mr Forshaw.
Now the group is raising further funds from international institutions.
"For Endless this transaction has delivered an excellent return just ahead of closing our first institutional fundraising. This fund will give us the firepower to do more Peter Black-style deals," added Mr Forshaw.
Endless said the deal had generated an internal rate of return of 215 per cent.
Chris Clegg and Mathew Deering at Endless supported Darren Forshaw while Endless was advised by Peter Smart and Richard Naish of Walker Morris and Martin Jenkins of Deloitte.