Lancashire Laminators was established in 1987 by Stephen and Sharon Ollerton. Thomas Delaney – who has now become the majority shareholder – joined the company in 1998, starting on the shop floor and working his way up over time to become production director.
Looking to wind down as he nears retirement age, Stephen Ollerton told Printweek he was keen to leave the business in safe hands and said a management buyout (MBO) was “a no-brainer [because] the people who work for the business know best how to take it forward”.
The company lost a large chunk of its turnover at the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020, but has recovered well since and currently employs 12 staff, with a turnover of around £850,000.
Ollerton and Delaney said there were around eight months between when the pair first started talking about the MBO to when the deal completed on 1 October.
“We had made the decision in two to three months and then we did a handover at year end, it was really very quick,” said Ollerton.
Delaney now has a 95% stake in the company, while Ollerton has retained 5%.
Lancashire Laminators offers services including film lamination, spot and overall UV varnish, strip gumming, and encapsulation.
It operates two B1 Ecotack water-based laminating machines with thermal capacity plus a B2 Ecotack thermal laminator, and two B1 Sakurai screen presses at its 1,500sqm site. It serves colour printers around the North West of England within an 80-mile radius from its Darwen, Lancashire base with its vans, and further afield with courier services.
Going forward, Delaney told Printweek: “I’ll be trying to keep things as we’ve been doing, I don’t want to make too many changes. A lot of people here have been here a long time – 20 or 30 years for some of them.
“It’s always worked, so why try to fix something that’s not broken. But it would be nice to get a little bit more work and start pushing forwards.”
Ollerton will now take a phased retirement, continuing to support Delaney in a new part-time role as finance director, with an aim to further reduce his hours over the coming years.
Delaney said the company’s customer base had been informed of the change and that there had been a lot of support.
