It is one of the country’s leading two-man, white glove delivery firms with clients including Dunelm, Bosch, The White Company, Wayfair, Silent Night and AGA. Following the investment, Panther plans to continue to invest in its operations and develop new service innovations to support its customers.

Simon Smith, partner at Clarke Willmott, said: “This is an exciting development for a business that is well-positioned as an industry leader. “We acted for the management team with specialist lawyers across several departments lending their expertise. It was great to be part of this successful transaction.”

The management team was led by Colin McCarthy and the transaction was backed by Lloyds Development Capital and Santander. Colin McCarthy Managing Director of Panther, said: “This is an exciting point in the business’ journey for our employees and customers alike. I would like to thank Clarke Willmott for all the hard work and dedication they gave us throughout the process, particularly Simon Smith and Kirill Kruchinin for the invaluable guidance and advice they gave me and my team.”

Clarke Willmott provided a five strong team to advise the new management on all aspects of the deal, with corporate issues handled by Simon Smith (Partner) and Kirill Kruchinin (Senior Associate). Tax advice was provided by Niall Murphy (Partner) and employment issues were handled by Kate Gardner (Partner) and Sarah Driscoll (Solicitor). Gowling WLG acted for LDC, Gateley plc acted for Santander, Shoosmiths acted for the outgoing bank (RBS) and Howes Percival acted for the selling shareholders.