Regional law firm, Birketts has advised the owner of The Dental Directory, on its sale to Integrated Dental Holdings (IDH), one of Britain's largest corporate dental services providers.

Operating for more than 40 years, The Dental Directory, which is based in Essex, provides a range of dental products and services to dentists across the UK.

With nearly 300 employees across four UK sites, the services are provided through field based sales teams and engineers, a dedicated UK call centre, and online and mail order capability. These services are supported by automated picking and packing systems from a central logistical base in Witham.

Martin Mills, The Dental Directory's managing director, said: 'A transaction of this size and complexity was always going to be challenging in the timescale demanded. The group of companies involved had to be re-structured within a regulatory environment with many supplier and client contracts to be analysed and considered in a very short period.

He added: 'We are delighted to be partnering IDH. They strongly support our strategy to continue to grow and diversify Dental Directory's services and support to our customers. The prospect of greater co-operation with IDH, which operates one of the largest dental healthcare practice networks in the UK with over 600 practices, and with dbg, will significantly add to our ability to provide a superior, cost effective service to our customers.'

Terry Scicluna, Chief Executive of IDH said 'Dental Directory is a well-established business delivering clear benefits to its customers and suppliers. The existing management team, which will continue to lead the business, has done a great job of delivering strong business performance and customer service. As part of the Dental Buying Group ('dbg'), we will have a comprehensive integrated consumables and service support structure in the UK for dental practices. We look forward to building on this in the future and further improving the quality of service provided to both Dental Directory & dbg businesses' customers and members.'

Rafael Ruiz, who led the Birketts team on the transaction, said: 'This was a complex and high value transaction, with challenging timescales, requiring resources from a number of teams across the firm. I'm pleased that we met those challenges, and I look forward to following the growth and future success of The Dental Directory in its next chapter, as a part of the IDH Group.'

Steve White, corporate finance director, at Grant Thornton, who advised the seller on financial aspects of the transaction, said: 'Rafael and his team were instrumental in delivering an outstanding deal against a demanding timetable, offering pragmatic and commercial advice to resolve issues.'