Xeros expands US operations with purchase of Gloves

The AIM-traded company said Gloves was acquired for an initial cash consideration of $0.8m, with a further contingent cash consideration of up to $0.3m subject to certain growth targets.

It said the initial consideration was funded from its existing cash resources.

For the year ended 31 December, Gloves generated revenues of $0.99m and EBITDA of $0.36m on gross assets of $0.15m.

Xeros said its strategy was to achieve national coverage by operating specialist cleaning facilities serving the major US metropolitan areas.

The acquisition of Gloves, together with the acquisition of MarKen PPE in July last year, represented “key milestones” towards achieving its goal of having four sites by the end of 2018, with national US coverage expected to be achieved in 2019, the company’s board explained.

It said that, with 1.1 million firefighters in the US, the annual value of the firefighter PPE cleaning market was estimated to be $330m.

The Xeros cleaning solution, which would be deployed at Gloves' facilities, was described as being “highly effective” at removing harmful contaminants, whilst also extending the life of expensive PPE garments.

Xeros said the Gloves business would be integrated into its high performance workwear division, and would immediately trade under the MarKen brand name.

“Our acquisition of Gloves is the next step in bringing the transformational benefits of our technology to the entire US firefighter PPE market,” said Xeros CEO Mark Nichols.

“The learning and competence which we are now acquiring will be the platform from which we can make our technology available on a global basis for a number of high performance workwear markets.”