Jespers supplies firm merges with giant

The deal, for an undisclosed sum, will see managing director and owner Peter Jesper sell The Jespers Office, which turns over around £1.5m annually, in its entirety and step aside in favour of Chris Newman, managing director of Complete Office Solutions.

Complete Office Solutions, whose head office is in Wakefield, is by far the bigger partner in the deal, turning over £26m and employing around 170 people. In contrast, The Jespers Office employs nine, all of whose jobs will be safe.

Mr Jesper said: “It’s a challenging market, there’s been a lot of consolidation, and this just seemed a marvellous opportunity to secure the business for the future.

“We’ve had a long-standing commercial respect for Complete Office who have always innovated to create new opportunities in the market. Collaborating with them is a logical next step to improve the range and depth of services to our clients across Yorkshire.”

“They’ve got a proven, forward-thinking model and a competitive offer which we’re looking forward to rolling out to our customers.”

For the time being, both constituent companies will continue to trade under their old names, but The Jespers Office will be phased out over the coming months, and the business is likely to move to Complete Office Solutions’ regional head office in York sometime later this year.

Chris Newman, managing director of Complete Office Solutions said: “Peter’s team have vast experience as well as extremely strong customer and supplier bonds, so joining forces puts the group in a better place to deliver even more value to our clients.

“We are very excited for the Jespers team to continue to work with their existing customers in Yorkshire and add to our coverage of the UK.”

Mr Jesper will step away from the company to concentrate on his family-owned retail stationery business, Jespers, whose Oxford Street shop has been a fixture in Harrogate town centre for over a century.