The founders of the Morphsuits costume business have taken back full control of the company following its rebound from the Covid pandemic to hit annual revenues of £42 million last year.
Ali Smeaton, Fraser Smeaton and Gregor Lawson set up AFG Media, the parent company of MorphCostumes, in 2009 and brought in the Business Growth Fund (BGF) as a minority investor in 2012. Since then, Edinburgh-headquartered AFG has expanded sales of its 1,200 designs into 12 countries around the world, and now employs 68 people.
BGF declined to specify the size of its former stake in the company but said the buy-back represented a "strong return" on its original investment of £4.2m, reflecting the growth of the business over the years. During that time AFG completed a number of acquisitions such as Digital Dudz in 2013 and Fun Shack in 2019.
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“It’s hugely gratifying to hand our minority stake back to the owners and wider AFG Media team after twelve years of close partnership," said Patrick Graham, head of BGF in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
"The business today is almost unrecognisable to the one we invested in, and we firmly believe that our patient approach was central to realising the huge potential of Fraser, Ali and Gregor’s eye-catching original idea. I look forward to following the company’s future successes and seeing their unique products popping up in ever more far-flung locations.”
The majority of AFG's sales come via Amazon, with additional US sales driven directly through retailers Target and Walmart. The company sold products into Mexico for the first time in the run-up to Halloween this year, having added Canada as a distribution market in 2023.
“BGF invested at a vital time for our business, and we are hugely grateful for its patience in some of the tougher times, particularly through the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the breadth of the support they provided over the last twelve years," Fraser Smeaton said. "We are now focused on scaling the business further, entering new markets and developing incredible new costumes.”
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