Former Tiffany & Co employee Helen Dimmick has led a management buy-out (MBO) of Manchester-based contemporary jewellery chain Green + Benz.

The deal, which has been made for an undisclosed amount, sees managing director Dimmick take a controlling stake in the business and be joined on a new board by current finance and operations director Mark Williams and chairman of T.H. Baker Alan Higgs.

Green + Benz has four locations in the north of England, including a location in Manchester’s Corn Exchange, and was initially set-up by Shane Green and Julie Benz with a site in Chesterfield in 1991 under the brand name Uno.

The two then opened the first Green + Benz shop in Sheffield in 1998, before adding sites in Manchester and Chesterfield.

Dimmick says that Green + Benz is in ‘excellent shape’ and the buy-out presents a ‘truly wonderful opportunity’.

She adds, ‘Of course we will not rest on our laurels, and plans are in place to increase the turnover of the business in the next five years with store developments, expanding product ranges and services and online technology all avenues that will be explored further.’