Tocris’ managers have also taken equity stakes in the company.

Led by managing director Laurence Ede and finance director Andrew Birnie, the buy-out team aims to grow Tocris by developing its business areas and offering more products and services to international clients.

Momentum Corporate Finance and Burges Salmon acted for the management team. Momentum’s Tony Kenny has been appointed chairman of Tocris.

Bristol-based Tocris provides chemicals, peptides and antibodies for life science research. It owns more than 1,700 products and these are sent to some 50,000 scientists every year.

The company runs four sites in the UK and one in the US, employing 56 people worldwide. It generated a turnover of £5.5 million and a profit after tax of £2.8 million for year-end June 2005.