Nonwovenn Makes Appointment to Fuel Acquisition Activity

Nonwovenn and CorpAcq have appointed Keith Pickering, Head of Acquisition, following the formation of a corporate vehicle, named Technical Materials Group (TMG), to spearhead an ambitious growth and acquisition strategy.

Nonwovenn and CorpAcq (a TDR Capital portfolio company have established TMG as the corporate vehicle to create an international specialist materials business. TMG will focus on acquiring businesses in the UK, Europe and North America manufacturing IP rich products and specialist materials, such as highly engineered textiles, films, composites, ceramics and laminated products.

Pickering joins the business as a highly experienced M&A practitioner, having completed more than 120 transactions in a 30-year advisory career. This included jointly founding Catalyst Corporate Finance in 1998, subsequently selling the business to Alantra Partners SA in 2017. He retired from the Alantra partnership at the end of 2025.

Commenting on the new role, Pickering says: “I am very enthused about the opportunity of working with the Nonwovenn and CorpAcq teams to build out a dedicated technical materials vertical within the CorpAcq portfolio. We already have a number of live discussions with potential acquisition targets and I am confident that, with the highly experienced Nonwovenn management team, the significant financial backing of TDR Capital and the competitive and flexible deal structures we can offer company owners, we can build a highly strategic group achieving revenues of £300m plus over the next three years.”

David Lamb, Chairman of Nonwovenn, adds: “We are experiencing an incredibly exciting time at Nonwovenn, achieving record organic growth and profitability. Using this as the platform to acquire a broader range of specialist materials businesses has long been my plan and the transaction with CorpAcq and TDR allows me to bring this to fruition. To be able to welcome someone with Keith’s calibre to the team just shows how high our aspirations are.” 

Technical Materials Group is focused on the acquisition of niche, high margin technical material businesses, especially those with a broad international sales footprint, manufacturing critical material and components, and with a culture of innovation and investment in research and development. Materials and component manufacturing aligned to power and thermal management, filtration, electrification, weight reduction, activated carbon solutions and PFAS alternatives are of particular interest. It is likely target businesses will operate in sectors such as military, aerospace, medical, water industry, data centres and other regulated markets.