Robert Dyas gets fan mail for nails GENERAL RETAILERS

Ironmongery and hardware retailing does not normally command cult status.

Yet Robert Dyas, the 73-strong chain of stores founded in London's Fetter Lane in 1872, has managed it - along with a lucrative price tag for the business.

Change Capital, the private equity vehicle of Luc Vandevelde, the chairman of Marks and Spencer, is expected to announce this week that it has acquired the business for Pounds 60m.

Brent Wilkinson, the chief executive and retail veteran who has turned the business around, says he has never worked anywhere like it. "When I arrived I was more used to getting letters of complaint.

At Comet, for example, we would get 10 complaints to one compliment. Here, we get 10 compliments to one complaint."

It is easy to see why shoppers love it - the 130-year-old company is an Aladdin's Cave of useful kit. You can buy measuring jugs, fuses, black bin bags, kettles, ironing board covers, hoses, alarm clocks, turkey basters, jam covers, drill bits, sandpaper, pie tins, weedkiller and mouse traps to name but a fraction of the items held in stock. And all of it is priced keenly and sold by informed and helpful staff.

The staff, claims Mr Wilkinson, are key and he has been eager to protect them during the sale negotiations. He says he was furious when news of the talks with Change Capital leaked out in December because he was concerned that his staff would fret about the future.

"They are our ambassadors and we have got to make them feel important," he says.

His approach has delivered better rewards than those delivered by the founding family, which sold 55 per cent of the company only three years ago for Pounds 8m.

The sale will mean a multi-million pound windfall for Roger Pedder, head of Clarks shoes and chairman of Robert Dyas, and Mr Wilkinson. The pair were involved in an Pounds 8m management buy-out of the business in 2001, which left them with a stake of close to 30 per cent.

The family of the group's founder, who opened the first outlet in Fetter Lane in the City in 1872, retain about 45 per cent.

At the time of the buy-out, Robert Dyas was losing Pounds 4.5m a year on sales of Pounds 40m and, according to Mr Pedder, was close to bankruptcy. But for the six months to September 2003, the loss had become a Pounds 2.2m pre-tax profit on sales that almost doubled for the period to Pounds 39m.

Mr Pedder's approach to rebuilding the business has been quite straightforward. "We tried to keep all the best features of what we were doing and bring it up to date."

This has included constantly introducing new products, allowing each store to chose between 5 and 15 per cent of its stock, nurturing staff and trying to give the customer a different or even quirky experience. "We're fun but we are serious," he says.

The management's success means their stake should now be worth Pounds 16.5m, while the family's will come in at Pounds 27m at the expected sale price. This will give these original investors something else in common with celebrities besides fan mail - fabulous wealth.