Ovington Boats Buy-Out

by Sail-World on 23 May 2007
Ovington Boats, builders of the 49er and 29er, has been bought out by a management group.

Directors Dave Hall, Chris Turner and Veronica Brown have purchased the company from the estate of founder Dave Ovington, who died in March 2005, after a heart attack while sailing on Windermere in the Lake District with his family.

The company, based in North Shields, specialises in the high performance end of the racing dinghy market, with sales of around 300 boats a year and a turnover of £2m with twenty staff. Ovington are the British supplier of the Olympic 49er class and other boats from the 9er skiff designs of Julian Bethwaite, the 29er and 59er.

In addition they are the main supplier of Flying 15 and International 14 hulls and recently started to produce the International Byte with a new rig.

They have been assisted in taking over the business by Evolve Finance, a specialist division of venture finance company NEL Fund Managers. Simon Johnson, senior investment executive at Evolve Finance, said:

'Ovington Boats has a terrific reputation and presented a good investment opportunity for us. Dave and the management team have huge experience and know the business inside out. 'There's no doubt that they will steer the company in the right direction and take it to even more success.'

http://www.ovingtonboats.com/