CVP exits hire business with Gearbox sale

The deal includes a significant portion of rental equipment, the transfer of all six dedicated hire staff and an office at Media City (pictured) in Salford, but not the Gearbox brand.

The assets and staff will become part of ES Broadcast Hire with the Gearbox brand remaining the property of CVP.

CVP managing director Mark Forth said: ”By withdrawing from the hire market we will be able to focus our resources and efforts on taking our sales service to a new level of excellence.”

Established in 1997, Gearbox offered cameras, lenses, microphones, editing systems and replay servers, among other things, on a dry-hire basis, to television producers. CVP bought the assets of the company from administrators in 2009. At the time Gearbox also offered sales and wet-hire services.

Edward Saunders, the managing director of the ES Broadcast group, said the acquisition “strengthens our position in the UK hire market and enhances our position as a leading European player.”

He hopes that the Gearbox deal will also allow his company to “introduce a number of new client synergies.”

Watford-based ES Broadcast is a supplier of new and used television broadcast equipment. An authorised Grass Valley dealer and an official supplier of Canon equipment, it also sells pre-owned and re-furbished outside broadcast units.

Azule Finance provided funding for ES Broadcast’s purchase of the Gearbox rental inventory.

Azule chief executive Peter Savage said: “Although we are predominantly known as a broadcast asset finance company we also are able to provide various types of business acquisition finance. This was a deal that needed to be completed quickly and confidentially.”

Financial details were not disclosed.