Mayo Hardware taps consultants from PwC for strategic review
The management team of Mayo Hardware has hired PwC to support the firm with a strategic review process.
Founded in 1928, Mayo Hardware sells outdoor lifestyle items, safety products such as locks, and other security and hardware equipment to the retail, trade, government and commercial markets in Australia and New Zealand, as well as a number of export markets. Alongside a broad suite of products, Mayo Hardware serves as the exclusive distributor of Master Lock products in Australia.
The company, which is majority owned by James and Sarah Mayo, the grandson and granddaughter of company founder Cecil Mayo, generates an annual revenue of between $20 million to $25 million before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
As part of the firm’s expansion plans, James and Sarah Mayo have brought in the support of external consultants from PwC to advise on a strategic review process. The consultants have been tasked with exploring a number of strategic options, including selling the business to a larger player or attracting capital from an investor. Having completed a due diligence and sell-side valuation on Mayo Hardware (according to publication Street Talk the firm’s value hovers around the $200 million deal range), PwC is currently exposing the family-owned business to mid-market private equity firms as part of the review, as well as potential strategic buyers.
Mayo Hardware has booked solid growth in recent years, mainly on the back of its growing product line. In 2017, the company acquired the distribution rights for DEWALT pressure washers and generators, and in the years before that the south-western Sydney-based firm also gained similar mandates for Thermacell and Sentry Safes products.
PwC is with more than 7,000 professionals one of Australia’s top professional services firms and one of the ‘Big Four’ players in the accounting and consulting landscape. The engagement at Mayo Hardware is being led by the firm’s M&A arm, which operates as PwC Corporate Finance.
