Archie Norman, the former chief of Asda who oversaw the turnaround of the supermarket group in the 1990s, has made his first acquisition through the investment vehicle he set up last summer.

Aurigo Investments, his investment vehicle, has joined forces with Och-Ziff Capital Management Group for the £310 million acquisition of HSS, the tool-hire business, from 3i, the private equity group.

Mr Norman, who is also working on a bid for the food distribution company Brakes, with Blackstone, the private equity firm, will be chairman of HSS. Chris Davies will remain chief executive of the company.

It marks the entrepreneur’s first success with the fund, which has previously lost out in the bidding for Esporta, the fitness chain, and Phones4U, the mobile phones chain. Mr Norman is also currently advising the conglomerate Wesfarmers on its bid for Coles, the Australian supermarkets group

Mr Norman said: “We are pleased to acquire HSS, which is a high-quality business undergoing substantial change in an attractive market. We look forward to working with HSS’s strong leadership team to support the firm in the next phase of its transformation. We see great potential in HSS and the people who work for it.”

He added that the plan was to “accelerate a programme of transformation”, as HSS repositions itself as an equipment supplier to larger trade customers.

HSS was bought from the Davis Service Group by a management team backed by 3i in December 2003 for £145 million. It has a network of 300 branches across the country and employs 2,500 staff.

Mr Norman has been looking for a turnaround opportunity, having rescued Asda from near-bankruptcy and sold it to Wal-Mart for £6.7 billion. He also led a revival of Energis that gained him the lion’s share of a bonus pool of £30 million upon the telecom group’s sale to Cable & Wireless in 2005.

Aurigo, which put up 70 per cent of the purchase price, was backed in the deal by investment funds managed by Perry Capital UK, Bank of Scotland Corporate, RIT Capital Partners, and Och-Ziff. Lazard acted as financial adviser.

Chris Davies, chief executive of HSS, said: “We now have secure backing to support our programme to transform HSS into Britain’s leading equipment hire and maintenance business. We look forward to working with Archie Norman and our new investors.”

Archie Norman: from supermarkets to tool hire

1991 joins Asda, which is £1 billion in debt.

1997 Elected Tory MP for Tunbridge Wells.

1999 Agrees the £6.72 billion sale of Asda to Wal-Mart, sells his own stake for nearly £6 million, steps downs as Asda chairman.

1999 Starts Knutsford, a shell company set up to look for retail deals, with Nigel Wray, Nick Leslau and Julian Richer.

2001 Quits Knutsford, which never managed a retail deal.

2002 Returns to the business world, heading a buyout of Energis, the telecoms group. 2003 Appointed an adviser to Lazard, the bank.

2006 Sets up Aurigo with the retail consultant Bradley Palmer. The pair examine the buyouts of Esporta, Phones4U, Focus andBrake Bros with a variety of private equity backers.

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