Congratulations to Alistair Hood and his fellow shareholders on the successful sale of their business Ashton Manufacturing to Reilly Best. Ashtons are the leading casket manufacturer in Australia.  

We wish the buyer and the vendors well, confident there is a strong alignment and a good fit and that the deal made sense for everyone. It was great working with Alistair and his team and we were very happy to have helped secure this important outcome for all the shareholders of Ashtons.

Our team remains extremely active in the manufacturing sector, we see many Australian niche manufacturing businesses, like Ashton Manufacturing, producing world class products. These kinds of businesses typically punch well above their weight not just in Australia but internationally. With added capital and reach, often provided by a larger acquirer, we see a very bright future for many of these well-established IP rich companies as their owners contemplate their exit., sometimes in stages. When well matched with strategic buyers the discussions about future opportunities and synergies normally trump valuations. Typically, manufacturers buy manufacturers – but as Ashton Manufacturing have proved, not always!