Who we are
A family with eighty years in manufacturing, buying one business to own and run. James and Alex are brothers and Daniel is their father, and the three of us are the people you will deal with, from the first call to completion and beyond.
James Thorn
Partner. Runs the business day to day.
James trained as a manufacturing engineer at the University of Nottingham and at the Institute for Manufacturing in Cambridge, and began his career as a research and development engineer at a machinery maker on the Wirral. He has since worked inside more than fifty factories in Britain and North America, improving how they run, across food, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, building materials and industrial equipment. He is currently Chief Operating Officer of Streamliners UK, an operations consultancy that works inside factories for their owners.
Away from work he likes making and mending things. He restores classic cars for the engineering in them, repairs old watches for the craftsmanship, and turns bowls and builds cabinets from good timber. He keeps bees, and plays polo on horses he trained himself from unbroken. He learnt to cook in restaurant kitchens during school holidays and has never stopped. He was born in Chester and divides his time between Cheshire and London.
Alexander Thorn
Partner. Analysis, data and systems.
Alex trained as a mechanical engineer at the University of Cambridge, where his final-year project was with British Cycling, and spent a year of his degree at MIT, taking as many business classes as the university would allow. He then spent six years in finance, first at Goldman Sachs as a quantitative strategist, then as a researcher and trader at a systematic hedge fund, building the models and software that turned data on global markets into decisions. He brings the same discipline to the partnership: the analysis behind which business we buy, the funding and structure of the purchase, and, once we own it, the tools that show a business what is really happening on its floor.
Away from work he is a keen follower of Formula 1.
Daniel Thorn
Adviser. A manufacturing owner himself.
Daniel is James and Alex's father, and chairman of Millmead Optical Group, the family manufacturing business that his own father, Herbert, co-founded in 1946. He joined in 1985 when Herbert retired, ran it as joint chief executive from 1992, and has sat on the owner's side of the table for forty years. He advises us on what matters to founders and their families when a business changes hands.
Whose money it is
Ours. James's share comes from his career as a partner in an operations consultancy, Alex's from his years in finance, and the rest from our family business. Because it is our own money, there is no fund raised against a deadline, no fundraising after we meet, and no pressure to buy the wrong business or to sell a good one.
Our family business, since 1946
We are invested in family businesses because we come from one. Millmead Optical Group has been built by three generations of two families, and it is still theirs.
Optoplast's exhibition stands over the decades, from the Millmead archive. The stand on the right carries the original address: Millmead, Guildford, Surrey.
1946
Walter Conway and Herbert Thorn, James and Alex's grandfather, set up Optoplast Manufacturing in Millmead, Guildford, with a staff of six.
1948 to 1951
Working with the new National Health Service, they launch the first range of NHS frames. Walter's PIMO machine follows in 1951, reinforcing spectacle sides at two a second. With eighty staff, Optoplast exports more than five million a year to eleven countries.
1967
The business moves to a new factory of over 10,000 square feet in Surbiton.
1982 to 1985
The second generation arrives. Walter's son Gary joins in 1982, the year Optoplast becomes the largest producer of spectacle frame sides in England. In 1985, on Herbert's retirement, his son Daniel joins.
1992
The business relocates to Liverpool. Gary and Daniel are appointed joint chief executives, and the company passes into the second generation's hands.
2012 to 2015
The third generation. Gary's son James and Daniel become joint chief executives and set up Optolab, a UKAS-accredited testing laboratory. Frame manufacturing begins in Liverpool in 2014, and the Walter & Herbert range, made in England, launches in 2015.
Today
Eighty years on, Millmead is still owned by the two founding families, with its factory in Maghull, Liverpool. Daniel Thorn is its chairman.
The early years at Optoplast: the workshop, the PIMO machine and the first frames, from the Millmead archive.
We know what it takes to build a business across generations, and what it means to hand one on. That is the spirit in which we will treat yours.
Questions you may be asking
Straight answers.
Are you private equity?
No. Private equity firms raise a fund from institutions, buy several companies and have to sell them within a set number of years. We are a family buying one business with our own money, to run ourselves, with no date to sell.
Where does the money come from?
From us. James's share comes from his career as a partner in an operations consultancy, Alex's from his years in finance, and the rest from our family business. Because it is our own money, we can take our time over the right business, and we intend to stay.
Can I sell only part of the business?
Yes. You can sell a share, often half, keep the rest, and step back from the day-to-day while we take on the running of it. You take some money off the table, you keep a stake and a say, and you share in what the business becomes. We are equally happy to buy the whole business. It depends on what you want.
Will my people keep their jobs?
Yes. The team is what we are buying. Our plans depend on the people who know how to make the product and look after the customers, and we intend to invest in them, not replace them.
What happens to the name and the site?
They stay. We may well invest in the site over time. We will not rename the business, move production elsewhere or fold it into another company.
Do I have to stay on after the sale?
No. A short handover is all we would normally expect. But we would like it very much if you chose to stay on, in whatever role you enjoy, for as long as you like. Selling to us can mean carrying on with the work you love, without the worry of having everything you own tied up in one business.
How do you go about improving a business?
In more than fifty companies we have found the same thing: the people running the business already know most of its problems. What they rarely have is the time to pick the few that matter most, and the support to fix them properly. That is what we bring: the right priorities, the tools and the guidance to see them through. We back the team to do it. We do not stand over them.
What will you actually do with the business?
Run it, support the team who run it today, and back them to make it better. Because we have no sale in mind, we will invest properly in equipment and in people, to take the business from strength to strength rather than dress it up for the next buyer.
Will anyone find out that we are talking?
Not from us. We sign a confidentiality agreement before you share anything, we do not approach your staff, customers or suppliers, and we will call on whatever number, and at whatever time, suits you.
How long does it take?
Usually four to six months from first conversation to completion, and eight to twelve weeks once terms are agreed. We tell you within a week if it is not a fit, we make one offer in writing, and we do not let the process drift.
I have had other approaches. What is different about talking to you?
The person you talk to is the person who would own and run the business, and nothing is handed on to anyone else. You will get a straight answer quickly, one offer in writing, and the same two people from the first call to completion.
Why should I trust a buyer I have never heard of?
Because everything on this site can be checked, and because we have sat where you sit. Our family has owned a manufacturing business since 1946. Look us up, look up the company, ask to speak to people we have worked with, and then judge us over a coffee.
Get in touch
Start with a conversation.
Ring or email James directly. It is confidential, it costs nothing and it commits you to nothing.