RJD portfolio company Stone Group wins preferred supplier deal with Lenovo
23 May 2011
Stone Group (“Stone”), the UK’s largest privately-owned computer hardware manufacturer, has signed a landmark deal to become a preferred supplier of customised Lenovo PCs and other products to the education market in the UK. Lenovo is the fourth largest PC manufacturer in the world.
The deal will enable Stone to further enhance its well established, strong reputation in the UK education market and extend its product portfolio to offer ‘tier one’ branded products, complemented by its own commitment to after sales service and value-add configurations. Stone customers will be able to purchase Lenovo products including the ever-popular ThinkPad Notebooks, in addition to ThinkCentre Desktop PCs.
RJD Partners (“RJD”) originally led the £28 million management buyout of Stone in April 2008. Stone subsequently acquired Rock Computers, one of the UK’s leading performance notebook manufacturers, in May 2008.
Since the buyout, the Staffordshire-based company has continued to grow strongly, launching its own recycling plant to enable it to offer a true cradle-to-grave service and successfully consolidating its operations in April 2010 onto a new single-purpose designed site to provide room for further expansion.
Stone gained a number of new accreditations during 2010, including the OGC Buying Solutions, the largest buying organisation for the UK public sector. As one of only 12 suppliers in the UK to gain this much coveted award, the accreditation was strategically groundbreaking for Stone, enabling the company to expand into new markets and supply a significantly wider customer base.
In July 2010, RJD invested an additional £4 million in Stone to fund further growth.
James Bird, CEO at Stone, comments, “We are delighted to announce that Stone will be supplying Lenovo products to the schools, further and higher education markets in this UK-exclusive deal. As the fourth largest PC manufacturer in the world, Lenovo products represent technical innovation and strong brand equity, and we can add to this Stone’s exemplary reputation in the UK market to offer customers a unique and compelling proposition. This is something we are very excited about, and we look forward to this helping us achieve our aggressive growth targets for 2011 and beyond.”
John Dillon, RJD Partners, commented: “Stone has achieved strong organic growth by providing a comprehensive first class service to its customers. The tie up with Lenovo is very exciting for both businesses, enabling Stone to extend its breadth of offering and consolidate further its market leading position in the education sector.”
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