A Thetford-based supply chain management specialist has secured a “significant” cash injection from investment fund Literacy Capital. East of England law firm Birketts advised on the transaction.
Vanilla Electronics was founded in 2002 by Dan Croft and his father Vince as a component distributor.
It now offers a fully outsourced service, from conceptual design, material procurement, kitting and manufacturing, through to end customer order fulfilment, product returns, warranty, repair and re-supply.
Croft said: “We are excited about having Literacy invested in Vanilla which should provide the catalyst to fuel our accelerated growth plans for the business.”
The Birketts team was led by Ed Savory with Adam Jones advising on the equity investment and support provided by William Kemp, Macauley Alsford, Jane Saunders and Julia Burfoot (corporate), Andrew Ridout (commercial property), Karl Pocock and John Kahn (tax), and Sam Greenhalgh (employment).
Croft added: “We look forward to developing our relationship with Birketts going forward as we believe their approach and expertise is ideally suited to support us on our ambitious trajectory.”
Savory, corporate partner at Birketts, said: “It has been an extraordinary experience – started and finished in lockdown, only meeting the clients in person for signing at the end.
“In order to meet the client’s expectations we split the roles so that I led on the share sale whilst Adam focused on the private equity elements.
“This approach meant we were able to maximise our expertise on PE deals whilst keeping to the timetable.”
