Elliot headed a five-strong team, which includes some colleagues from the "old" Howitt organisation, where he was chief executive until its sale in January 2004.

The team includes David Weiss and Keely Hemmings, who worked with Elliot in his Howitt days, as well as former Jarrolds manufacturing director Alec Ogle and John Hind, the former finance director of ink group Gibbon.

Elliot said the team of "heavyweights" saw significant growth opportunities at the B1 printer. "The position for us is that [Garden House] is a very respected name, and we're confident we can create some extra mileage from that name," said Elliot.

The MBI team has replaced Derek and Richard Langeveld as directors of the Perivale-based firm, but both intend to stay with the business for the foreseeable future.

"It is business as usual, but there is also change," said commercial director Richard Langeveld.

"These are people with experience, and different kinds of experience, and we will bring that all together and map it on to something that is already moving very fast."

Derek Langeveld led an MBO at Garden House about 20 years ago and son Richard has been with the firm for almost 10 years.

Elliot first showed an interest in buying Garden House back in 2003. "It was a nice business then and it is a nice business now," he said.
The old Howitt was placed into administrative receivership in January 2004 and was subsequently bought by a buy-in team lead by chief executive Nick Dixon.

Garden House factfile
- Founded in 1955
- Bought in an MBO headed by Derek Langeveld about 20 years ago
- Based in 2,300sqm premises in Perivale
- Employs 50 staff
- Runs eight- and a 10-colour Heidelberg SM102s and Screen pre-press kit
- Prints a mix of commercial and financial print, and short-run magazines