Mountain Warehouse warms up for 200 million IPO with increased presence in the US

British outdoors apparel firm Mountain Warehouse is working steadily to expand its presence in the US and Canada, with a view to appear more attractive for its upcoming Initial Public Offering (IPO) of shares.

In fact, the company’s CEO Mark Neale has unveiled his plans to grow its overseas presence to “half of the business”, in comparison to the approximately 20 percent of the total sales the international business represents today.

In an interview with the ‘Telegraph’, Neale said that “We wanted to do it a bit below the radar because we didn’t want to join the graveyard of British companies that go over there only to come running back,” referring to the expansion of the business in North America.

Mountain Warehouse to accelerate expansion in North America in 2016

As unveiled in late January, Mountain Warehouse is eyeing a 200 million pounds stock market debut, with the intention of using proceeds from the floatation to fund their international expansion.

Founded in Swindon twenty years ago by Mark Neale, the retailer now operates 191 stores in the UK has expanded beyond its British market to open stores in Germany, Poland, the US and Canada over the last three years.

Having had several private equity owners until the company’s management regained control over the business is 2013, the executive team hired private bank Rosthchild to look for financial alternatives to help the business thrive.

To date, Neale owns around 85 per cent of the business, with the rest in hand of other members of the management team.

Pre-tax profits rose by 31 percent to 4.3 million pounds for the six months to the end of August, on sales of 59.3 million pounds. Christmas sales came in strong, jumping by 28.6 percent in the six weeks to January, 3.