New Zealand supplier The Service Company announced on 11 February that it is combining forces with The Godfreys Group to expand operations in New Zealand and Australian commercial cleaning supplies sector.
The purchase of the Kiwi firm will be complete on 29 February 2016.
Godfreys will then roll out The Service Company’s ‘range of environmentally-friendly cleaning products across the Godfreys retail network of 223 stores in Australia and New Zealand,’ reported the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH).
“There is a growing trend towards environmentally friendly products and this will be a significant enhancement to our offering,” said chairman Rod Walker in the company’s release. “We look forward to developing this side of our business further and to capitalising on the growth in this market with an innovative product range.”
‘Godfreys will also use the acquisition to make more inroads into the commercial cleaning market,’ continued the SMH article.
As noted in a press release from The Service Company, the amalgamation of the organisations ‘will provide a springboard for growth in the highly fragmented $500 million-plus commercial sector.’
“This takes our commercial cleaning supplies business to the next stage in Australia and New Zealand; this is an exciting opportunity for us to scale up our operations and bolster our product offering in this space,” commented Rod Walker. “Commercial cleaning is a market that is experiencing good growth, and The Service Company brings a vast range of environmentally friendly products and a strong client base to our business.
From The Service Company’s point of view, the firm will ‘leverage off the greater Godfreys Group machinery brands and sources while expanding its extensive range of high-performance cleaning products with a specific emphasis on the award winning Care4 Environmental Choice Range.’
The Service Company’s owner Ian Jemmett will also be retained as head of commercial operations in New Zealand, which will continue as The Service Company.
The news of the purchase came on the same day Godfreys gave the full details of its first-half results for the period ended 25 December 2015. The company confirmed that there was ‘no change to the preliminary unaudited results announced on 13 January 2016’ and reaffirmed that it expects a full-year underlying net profit tax ‘in the range between $8.5 million to $9.2 million.’
To learn more about these results, please read INCLEAN’s coverage of the 13 January preliminary results here.
While Godfreys has not suffered ‘no further deterioration over the last four weeks, with January trading in line with expectations,’ the SMH said that fund manager K2 Asset Management also revealed on Thursday that it was no longer a substantial shareholder in the company.