Navis Capital Partners, a private equity firm, has completed an investment in Texon from Barclays Ventures, part of Barclays Bank PLC. Texon is a leading manufacturer of structural footwear components and materials. Texon’s management team has retained a significant stake in the business.

Established in 1947, Texon has a long-standing heritage in the manufacture of high quality nonwoven and cellulose materials, principally used for structural support components in footwear. Its products are synonymous within the industry for their quality, performance and reliability and can be found in over 500 million pairs of shoes manufactured each year.

Texon’s materials are crucial to the overall fit, performance and comfort of a wide range of footwear types and can be found in everything from rugged hiking boots through to high performance footwear used by world-leading professional sports players. 

Headquartered in Hong Kong and with key production facilities in the U.K., Germany and China, Texon distributes and supports its products in over 90 countries worldwide. It is a key supply chain partner to global brands supplying contract manufacturing facilities, principally in China and Southeast Asia.

This transaction provides new capital for the next stage of growth. The new investment will support Texon in commercializing a number of exciting and innovative material development projects, developing its presence in new markets and making acquisitions of complementary businesses.

Stan Lamb, CEO of Texon, says: “We are delighted to have concluded a transaction with Navis and look forward to great success with their backing. Their presence and relationships in Asia are highly complementary to our growth plan. I’d also like to thank the Barclays team for their pragmatic and wholehearted support over recent years to enable us to focus on growing the business to this point.”

Bruno Seghin, senior partner at Navis, says: “The market, the profile of the company as well as the competitive position built by Texon fit perfectly with Navis investment strategy. The management has secured a solid platform from which we would expand the reach of the company in terms of products, geographies and services. Having the management as an important investor increases our confidence in the success of those plans.”