After a four-year hold period, BGF sold specialist windows manufacturer Victorian Sliders for £60m at the end of last year. Jason Sinclair reports on how its Swedish acquirer could open new markets for the south-west Wales business.
Home improvements got a massive boost during lockdown. Those optional jobs that would usually be postponed indefinitely suddenly assumed critical importance. And some of us staring longingly out at the outside world from our home offices decided it was the windows we looked through that needed updating.
For Scot Starkey, who founded Victorian Sliders (as Victorian House Window Group) in 2005, 2021 was a good time to expand. The company received £14m of growth investment from BGF and in November 2023 a follow-on investment of £4m – immediately after which Starkey left the company. Victorian Sliders then focused on developing new product lines and customers, as well as rationalising its pricing. And in December 2025 BGF sold the business to Swedish trade group Inwido. The £60m sale achieved a 3.2x multiple and an IRR of 36%.
Victorian Sliders is currently the UK’s main producer of uPVC sash windows, bringing more than 200 jobs to the Welsh town of Ammanford, in the hills north of Swansea.
Trouble glazing?
“Growth wasn’t driven by overall market dynamics,” says Edwin Davies, who led BGF’s investment and sat on the Victorian Sliders board for BGF’s four-year hold period. He remembers that market conditions turned tough post-investment: “The deal was completed off the back of a pandemic-era boom where everyone was doing home improvements and demand for windows was massively high. There was a strong trading trajectory at the point of investment, but in the years that followed the market became more challenging.”
Nonetheless, after installing a new management team, revenues grew from £19m at the time of investment to £33m on exit. BGF’s strategy was “largely around operational and structural discipline, with a focus on product mix, pricing discipline and manufacturing efficiency driving margin expansion”, says Davies, alongside professionalising the business and “improving margins, rather than just chasing volume”.
In 2022 BGF brought in Jason Powell as operations director. Nick Evans joined as strategic development director a year later and became CEO in 2024 – the same year finance director Alex Jenkins came on board. Nick Evans, who had a banking background and had spent seven years as chief operating officer in PE-backed financial services business Equiom, drew on his experience to evolve the business: “The focus was on accelerating the transition from an owner-managed business to a private equity backed corporate,” he says. “When the original entrepreneur left the business, we were able to focus on driving our strategy.”
But Nick Evans was at pains to make sure that his strategic changes reflected the company’s needs. “I was very conscious of not creating a strategy in a vacuum and sought views of staff and longstanding customers on where we should focus our time and set to work.”
Product upgrades, with more security features and colour options, enabled the company to charge more – the average product price increased from £265 to £379. Improvements in design and manufacturing also meant the ‘quality gap’ between uPVC and more expensive timber sashes was reduced. And the Ammanford factory’s lead times were slashed from 30 days to 10.
Here’s the deal
Victorian Sliders has 300 employees across facilities in south-west Wales (where there are 200), China (25) and other UK hubs. With £33m in annual turnover, it produces 1,750 uPVC sash windows per week.
Vendor: BGF’s sale in December 2025 was led by its investors Edwin Davies (who spent four years on the board of Victorian Sliders) and Hannah King, who works in the firm’s South West and Wales team. Exit advisory support was provided from Kroll (investment banking), Grant Thornton (vendor financial due diligence), CIL (vendor commercial due diligence) and Hugh James (legal advice).
Acquirer: Inwido AB is Europe’s leading window group, specialising in the development and sale of customised windows and doors. Headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, Inwido operates in 12 countries and has approximately 4,700 employees.
The Deal: Inwido acquired 100% of the shares in Victorian House Window Group (trading as Victorian Sliders) for £60m on a cash and debt-free basis.
Transfer windows
But for all the improvement, BGF’s exit was very much dependent on the prospects of further growth, whether for a new private equity owner or for a trade buyer. The company’s factory makes 1,750 windows per week, and there is capacity to double that production.
“We were thinking about exits all the way through the journey,” says Davies, “and it’s been about shaping the business towards that.” The process was accelerated in May 2025, with Kroll appointed to run a competitive process, Grant Thornton providing vendor due diligence, and CIL on commercial due diligence. “We were ready with a clear equity story of a market leader in its space,” adds Davies.
Dafydd Evans, M&A MD in the investment banking team at Kroll, ran the sell-side process on Victorian Sliders. He says both strategic and private equity investors were interested. “Some attended site visits, met with management and understood the investment opportunity. I think it’s fair to say that the plan that Nick [the CEO] was successfully executing was still in progress, so there was still significant value left for any new owner to drive profitability.”
Ultimately, it was an overseas trade buyer’s bid that proved the most attractive, says Davies. “We ended up selling to a listed Swedish business, Inwido, that’s made numerous acquisitions in the windows space. They saw a robust, strategic rationale for buying the business,” he says.
There’s a lot of runway to go on replacing wooden sash windows with a better alternative
“Beyond the margin profile and the growth opportunity, the fact is that a differentiated product offering is a key attraction for Inwido,” says Dafydd Evans. “There’s a lot of runway to go on replacing wooden sash windows with a better, more cost-effective uPVC alternative.”
The fact that Inwido’s CEO Fredrik Meuller was an ex-investment banker “who understands M&A” made everything about the deal run that much smoother, adds Dafydd Evans. “Dealing with somebody like that, who understood the rationale and the acquisition process, made it a lot more efficient. I think this was their 37th acquisition since being established.”
Taking the long view
BGF’s investment in Victorian Sliders, in 2021, was a long time coming; Davies had started keeping tabs on the company as early as 2014. “I approached the founder, had a chat and we kept in touch over time,” he says. “I was meeting him fairly regularly for about seven years before we ended up investing. We were building that long-term relationship and trust.”
Right from the outset, succession was on the agenda
Following the acquisition, says Davies, “part of the whole journey was about the founder of the business wanting to bring in a partner to support growth, but also step back over time. Right from the outset, succession was on the agenda.”
That leadership responsibility has ultimately been passed to Nick Evans, who reports that Inwido “recognise a strong, entrepreneurial management team, and are letting us get on with driving the business”.
“I think Nick and the team are very market-driven”, says Dafydd Evans. “They are listening to the voice of the customer and looking at what exactly they want from the products, in more of a sales-led approach.”
There will be synergies with the wider group too. The potential to learn and adopt best practice from Inwido’s other business units, including sales – as well as opportunities to “consider moving into other geographies in Europe”, according to Nick Evans – make this an exciting period of development for the business.
BGF’s involvement accelerated growth, professionalised operations, and positioned Victorian Sliders for a high-value sale. The company’s integration with Inwido demonstrates how British businesses can attract international interest by innovating products, maintaining margins, and – crucially – having a compelling sales narrative.
