When you consider that they paid £85 million for Micheldever Tyre Services (MTS) in 2006, it is no surprise that equity house Graphite Capital is willing to sell the company now it is in the position to command a £200 million price tag. Back then Graphite were cast as the backers for a management buy-in/buy-out that kept the independent tyre wholesaler in independent hands and out of the corporate grasp of ‘big business.’ Now it seems that the motivation to sell the UK’s largest single tyre wholesaler (along with its 50 Protyre retail depots) emanates primarily from the same equity house that kept it in the hands of its managers four years ago.

Micheldever Tyre Services is said to have started out in a shed in 1972. Over the next 34 years Tony Todd grew the company into a market leading independent wholesaler with a loyal customer base. By the time he sold it in 2006, MTS had become a truly multi-million pound business, with the staff count reaching over 550 people, sales reaching £148 million annually and pre-tax profits amounting to £5 million a year. Since then turnover and staff levels have almost doubled to £275 million and 900 people in 2009, with MTS particularly benefitting from its exclusive distribution of some leading upper mid-range products during the recession.