FORECASTS of hot, dry weather bring a smile to the face of Nigel Palmer, who has this year lead a management buy-out (MBO) of the agricultural irrigation company Wright Rain.

Long hot summers bring in the orders for the company's equipment, so long as these follow wet winters with full reservoirs to use for irrigation.

Ringwood-based Wright Rain has customers throughout the world but needed rescuing by the receiver after the collapse of its parent company, which had suffered reverses in the agricultural slurry and effluent market.

Nine jobs have been saved with the buy-out, which came together with the support of the financial packages manager of business Link Hampshire, John Foundling, who helped steer the company through the financial complexities of the deal. Mr Palmer, the MD, knew that his strengths lay in his full knowledge of the business, the way it operates and its customer base. But without a financial background, he needed to plug into Mr Foundling's skills and experience to introduce equity capital, and then turn to the bank to support the company with borrowings to fund cash flow and the general running of the business.

Said Nigel: "John had some bright ideas on how we could structure the deal and we looked at various alternatives. Left to my own devices, I would probably have asked the bank for much more in the way of funding, only to find my approach would have been turned down."

Equity support for the purchase has come from a former managing director, Norman Cook, who spent 40 years with the company, and a further overseas investor.

For more than a year now Wright Rain has turned to Business Link Hampshire adviser Bill Van Orden for on-going business support, with the current emphasis on new busi-ness development, particularly in overseas markets. "A lot of our future lies overseas," says Nigel. "Exports make up around 40 per cent of our sales. We are investigating innovative ways of developing joint venture projects."

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.