Swallowfield buys £3m Fish men's grooming brand

Personal care and beauty products developer Swallowfield has acquired men's grooming brand Fish for an upfront cash consideration of £2.7m.

Fish, a well-established, authentic, contemporary brand with a close connection with London style trends through its link to the brand's original salon in D'Arblay Street, and all related trademarks were acquired from Fish London Limited and stock, website domains, and other marketing collaterals were purchased from KMI Brands.

In addition to the £2.7m upfront payment, Swallowfield will pay a further £300,000 twelve-month performance-based earn out, financed via a new term loan.

For the year ended 31 December 2017, Fish generated net sales of £1.7m and achieved an EBITDA of £400,000.

Launched more than 15 years ago and currently sold in Boots, Superdrug, Tesco and Waitrose, Fish founder Paul Burfoot will continue to work with the brand as a consultant.

Chris How, Swallowfield's chief executive officer, said, "Following the acquisitions of Real Shaving Company in 2015 and The Brand Architekts in 2016 we have been delighted to have seen strong growth momentum in our owned brand portfolio. This segment of our business showed sales growth of 25% in the first half of our current financial year and in that same period contributed 31% of group sales. The addition of Fish to this vibrant portfolio will add further strength and growth potential."

As of 0840 GMT, shares had spiked up 4.19% to 336.00p.