It was two months before shareholder restructuring at Altrincham based retail property services company Styles & Wood could finally go ahead, last October.

Venture capitalists 3i bought for an undisclosed sum the 38.3 per cent stake held by private investors.

Fast growing Styles & Wood provides store layout and design, project management and after sales support services to retailers such as Argos, B & Q, Boots, Barclays, Debenhams, John Lewis Partnership and Sainsbury’s for new branches and refurbishments.

As well as offices in Altrincham, it has operations in Nottingham, Milton Keynes and London.

In 2000, the business turned over £97m and made pre-tax profits of £2.7m.

The shares were split between management and private investors. Earlier last year, bosses told their corporate finance advisers, Rickitt Mitchell & Partners that the private backers wished to exit.

Rickitt Mitchell invited tenders and 3i won the day. Daryl Seaton, a 3i investment executive in Manchester said “Our investment underlines our commitment to back the best management teams and businesses in the north.

Styles & Wood had doubled sales over the last five years, benefiting from a trend among retailers to outsource non-core functions.

We have now provided a strong platform for organic growth and acquisitions.”

The deal involved setting up a new company - Styles & Wood Group, which is owned by management and 3i.

Daryl said: “It was fairly straight-forward, but then came the last-minute hitch over tax clearance, which delayed things by two months.”

Paul Mitchell of Rickitt Mitchell advised Styles & Wood.