Mountain Warehouse founder takes back control of business

The retailer repurchased a nearly 20% stake in the business that was held by private equity group Inflexion since 2018.

The transaction, which valued Mountain Warehouse at close to £400m, was secured with the backing of long-standing lenders Natwest, HSBC UK, RBC Capital Markets, Citibank and Lloyds.

The funding also includes an additional credit facility to support the retailer’s UK and international expansion.

Neale told Retail Week: ”We’ve still got quite a lot of growth in the UK. We are [also] focusing on North America where we want to try and expand our Eastern Mountain Sports business that we bought last year.

“We’ve been a bit cautious because of all the tariffs and uncertainty but if that settles down, we’ll definitely be looking to invest more there.”

Mountain Warehouse, which has over 400 stores worldwide, confirmed it will open a new location every week between now and Christmas. 

This includes stores in Thetford, Berwick, Cirencester, Banbury, Lincoln, Southport and Cardiff, as well as three in Australia in Canberra, Hobart and Katoomba. Two new Animal shops will open in Tenby and Bristol.

The business previously said it would open up to 50 new branches and relocations during its current financial year.

Commenting on the buy-back, Neale said: “We are hugely grateful for the continued support from our existing banks HSBC, NatWest and RBC, and we are looking forward to working with Citibank and Lloyds as our growth continues. I’d like to thank Inflexion for their valuable insight and support since 2018, especially during the pandemic. 

“They understood the business and really helped turbocharge our expansion. We opened more than 100 stores, including the first ones in Australia and New Zealand, during the period of their investment.

“We also acquired the Animal brand in the UK and Eastern Mountain Sports in the US, helping double and revenues and positioning us for continued future growth.”