A short drive out of the bustling city centre of Manchester, tucked away behind a quiet residential street in Leigh is Brooklands Mill, home to The Deva Tap Company's HQ and distribution centre.

Deva has a long history of management buyouts and acquisitions. The company itself was formed back in 1991 after the management buyout of Engineering Concessionaires followed by the subsequent acquisitions of local firms Attersall Building Products, Windsor Water Fittings, Rothwell Shower Products and Howard Bird Ltd, giving it over 30 years experience in the brassware industry.

Deva then hit the headlines last September when it announced its acquisition by New Zealand-based shower manufacturer The Methven Group worth $59m NZD (£23.5m).

So, how did the acquisition by Methven come about?

In 2003 Deva had the most profitable year in its entire history, followed by considerable year-on-year growth. Consequently, Deva attracted a great deal of interest and in 2005 we were approached by a number of global companies. We decided that we would only sell to a company that would guarantee the future of staff and we turned down a lot of offers purely because they could not meet this requirement. Then we were
approached by Methven who came up with a serious offer; the money was right and they assured us that the running of Deva would be almost untouched and that all jobs would be safe.

How has the day to day running changed under Methven?

Methven don't get involved with the daily running of Deva so in that respect absolutely nothing has changed. We still have the same number of employees now that we had before the deal. 
We've got a fantastic young team here at Deva, made up of people who are highly enthusiastic and see it as a career not just a job . Personally I think it's a really exciting time to be working at here.

If nothing much has changed, how has Deva benefited from the buyout?

There are huge benefits to being part of such a big international group. We get the chance to get
involved in global conferencing, where we benefit from the knowledge and expertise of other companies within the group.Some companies within the group are better at some things than others. Deva for instance is recognised for it's success at sourcing quality products at a very low cost, and we now source products globally, for the whole Methven group.

So what are Deva's plans for the future?

Deva has a massive growth plan that includes details to grow the business organically and via acquisition at a minimum of £60m. We've also got some quite big export plans in the pipeline, which I won't go into detail about because I think we've got a huge advantage over our competitors.

So which companies are Deva looking to acquire? And when will these plans come to fruition?

Before we could get any plans in motion we needed to get through the first seven months because the investors in New Zealand were looking very closely at us. All eyes were on us basically. Those seven months were all about proving Deva to the investors in NZ and we've done just that. We've outperformed our budgets and forecasts, in fact we've outperformed in every area that made Methven buy the business in the first place.
Because there may be a bit of global turbulence around the corner, at present we are just compiling a list of possible companies. Then at the end of 2008 we will look at the financial accounts of those companies before making a move.

If you can't give names what about a brief outline of the companies you're looking to approach? And are they European based or global?

I can't go into detail about company profiles, but like I said, we're not looking at acquisitions of less than £60m so this is not a small scale plan by any means. As for where the companies are based, we're looking at companies all over really.

Consolidation and acquisition is big news at the moment, do you think it's likely to continue or do you think we'll see bigger companies selling up?

My view is that overseas investors might be looking to get a return on their investment now, as apposed to waiting to see what happens in the market over the next couple of years. But with us it's the other way round, we're looking to take on the world really. Buy, buy, buy Del boy!

Where do you source products and parts from?

We spend a great deal of time investigating the best places and ways and means to source products. The parts Deva uses to make its products are sourced from around the world, predominantly in Asia. Deva has also identified product sources in parts of Africa which we are already benefiting from.

Do you source products globally because of the big issue with raw material costs? Are you searching for the best products?

Raw materials are all based on the London metal exchange so it doesn't make a difference whether we source from central Africa, China or Italy, it's labour costs and varying efficiencies that make the difference.
Government incentives to manufacturers also make a difference. In China for instance the government gives a 9% refund on tax to companies that export, in Africa it's even bigger at 20%. These incentives reduce the cost of the end product which has a huge impact on overall costs to us the buyer.

Is product development important to Deva?

Ten percent of all employees in the [Methven] group are employed to work on new product development, that's how dedicated the group is to developing products. We started going down that route ourselves, but I think the Methven Group buyout kick-started us into it in a big way. In fact we've recently re-structured the Deva team slightly to strengthen our product development team.

Going forward are there plans to work more closely with Methven on product development?

In New Zealand they are fantastic at developing product ideas and designs but work at a much slower pace than the UK. That's no secret, in fact it's one of the reasons we will be working more closely together in the future. You could create the greatest product in the world but if you take too long with it, you may find that the market's moved on.

What are your plans to tackle environmental issues in the future?

We have very strong views on issues that affect the environment. Water is the key issue that affects the bathroom industry and we play a heavy role, alongside other manufacturers and the BMA, in promoting the issue among the industry. It's more important to educate people how to use water efficiently. It's all very well producing a quality product that uses water saving technology, but if the end user doesn't understand the need to use it properly it's not going to save any water.