Audio console manufacturer Calrec has been acquired by Electra Partners for £14m, as the wave of UK kit manufacturer mergers and acquisitions continues.

Electra said Calrec would become a “sister company” to Allen & Heath, another console manufacturer bought by the private equity fi rm last year.

Both were acquired from D&M Holdings.

Both brands are expected to be retained and Allen & Heath chairman Malcolm Miller will work with both companies.

Calrec managing director Roger Henderson told Broadcast it was an open secret that both firms had been up for sale for “some time”, given that D&M is keen to focus on its consumer audio businesses.

He said: “Electra has bought us to continue to focus on our core markets, and as far as I am aware there are no plans to move Allen & Heath from its Falmouth base or us from Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire.”

Henderson said that despite the companies being “about as far apart as it’s possible to be in the UK”, they already share thinking on technology.

“We are not closely coupled but there is a relationship between the two companies. Our R&D and manufacturing teams have swapped ideas,” he said.

Henderson said a closer relationship could help the firms develop products in the “white spaces” that exist between the two companies’ product sets.

“The deal is only 48 hours old, so I don’t want to prejudge Electra’s strategy but I can imagine there are areas we don’t currently address in terms of price range and market segments,” he said.

Other acquisitions this month include Quantel’s acquisition of Snell and Vislink’s purchase of Pebble Beach Systems.

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