A £100m takeover of Dorset based art and craft giant Hobbycraft saw teams of financial and legal experts from Southampton advise on the deal.

Founded by garden centre entrepreneur Warren Haskins in 1995 with a store in Bournemouth, Hobbycraft swiftly grew into a 47-strong chain carrying 35,000 products with a turnover of £84 million and profits after tax of £7.3m. The management buy-out, which was backed by private equity firm Bridgepoint Capital, netted its founding family a multi-million pound windfall.

The team from accountants Grant Thornton’s Southampton office acted for the shareholders of Hobbycraft to ensure a competitive auction process was run to a tight timescale and delivered a good price.

It took the number of deals completed by Grant Thornton in the region to nine in the past two months, with a total value of £260m, including the management buy-out of Ringwood recycling contractors Raymond Brown Group and the disposal of Lymington boat builder Green Marine.

Corporate finance partner Simon Davies said: “Hobbycraft is a unique business which has gone from strength to strength and has defined the market for arts and crafts in the UK. The success and size of the deal with Bridgepoint is testament to the entrepreneurship and drive of Warren Haskins and the management team.”

Southampton based law firm Lamport Bassitt also acted for shareholders. Sean Kelly, who led the Lamport Bassitt team, said: “We were delighted to act for the shareholders in a transaction of this nature and value. The deal was complex and required experience at this level of transaction.”

Warren said: “We were delighted to be able to put a strong local team together with Grant Thornton as lead adviser and Lamport Bassitt in support. Hobbycraft is a great business and I am confident that the strong management will continue to develop and grow it into something special.”

The new owners of Hobbycraft, which has a two Hampshire branches in West End and Havant, said it had the potential to more than quadruple the number of stores in the medium-term, capitalising on an increasing trend to “make do and mend” since the recession struck.

It is estimated the arts and crafts market is now worth £2 billion in the UK.