A housebuilder from Gloucestershire has merged with another business to create one of the UK’s largest housing associations.

The deal is said to mark a “significant milestone” in the group’s long-term strategy to deliver more genuinely affordable homes, and continuing to invest in, or regenerate, existing homes and services.

The merger brings together the joint forces of Tewkesbury-headquartered Bromford Flagship and Exeter-based LiveWest.

Robert Nettleton (pictured above), former group chief executive officer of Bromford Flagship, will become chief executive of Bromford Flagship LiveWest (BFL), with Jac Starr, former chairman of LiveWest, becoming group chairman of BFL.

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ProCook, the Gloucestershire-headquartered online and in-store kitchenware retailer, says it is confident of delivering a a strong full-year performance.

The Gloucester-based business has revealed it delivered a record peak-season performance and outperformed the market over the Christmas period.

It means that ProCook has now delivered nine consecutive quarters of retail growth, and the company believes there is more to come.

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Cotswold-based labour supply specialist to UK infrastructure sector, Hercules, has announced new contracts worth around £6.5 million.

The latest news refers to contracts in the water sector. The South Cerney-based business will supply staff to Galliford Try, Costain, Tilbury Douglas, MWH Treatment, Glanua and Thames Water UK-wide.

The majority of that work, an estimated £4.5 million, will be delivered in the Thames Water region and £1m each in Severn Trent and Anglian Water areas.

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One of Gloucestershire's biggest businesses, home-grown Brockworth-headquartered Mears plc, has reported “a period of strong operational, financial and strategic performance” for its first six months of the year.

Lucas Critchley, the firm’s chief executive officer, was upbeat despite a fall in revenue of four per cent (from £580 million to £559.4m) - probably helped by the increase in pre-tax profits by five per cent to £32 million.

The scale of its financials make it a focus for The Raikes Journal’s Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series, which follows the fortunes of the county’s biggest firms by turnover and which we cover on in our Reports and Deals channel.

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A firm followed by The Raikes Journal as part of its Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series has revealed it’s set for more growth after a multi million pound takeover - made possible by another Gloucestershire firm.

Hercules, the Cotswolds-based supplier of skilled and semi-skilled workers for major infrastructure construction projects, has bought Advantage NRG Ltd for a consideration of up to £15.7 million.

The Preston-headquartered firm provides skilled staff to major utility contractors to work on overhead powerlines, refurbishing, upgrading, dismantling and constructing high voltage transmission systems.

It is a deal that is expected to add millions of pounds more to the turnover of its Cirencester-based owner, with the Lancashire businesses turning over £11.1 million for the year ending February 28 2025, with pre-tax profits of £1.7 million.

Paul Wheatcroft, Hercules’ chief financial officer, said: “This acquisition is a transformational step for Hercules. It not only gives us …

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When Elaine and Paul Lewis founded their IT business in 1989 the idea of selling it to a multi-million pound turnover American firm would probably not have been on their radar – but that’s what has just happened.

And that deal, which has seen the their company, Kemble-based Cadventure, acquired by US-headquartered infrastructure engineering software company Bentley Systems, was made possible by another Gloucestershire business.

It was the corporate finance team at county accountants Hazlewoods that advised on the successful sale of Cadventure, which is described as “a provider of industry-leading software used by architects, engineers, and designers of major infrastructure projects worldwide”.

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As we play catch-up on some of the organisations featured in our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series, which follows the fortunes of the county’s biggest businesses by turnover, we come across the National Star Foundation.

Before you get to its financial data in its latest annual report you get to numbers outlining the impact of what it does - support young adults with disabilities and learning difficulties.

It is simply astonishing.

The report, for the year ending 31 August 2024, show that those young people benefitted to the tune of 1,064,531 hours of service.

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Major wood wholesaler Panel Supplies has spelled out just how difficult the headwinds have been that impacted its business in its last financial year.

The multi-million pound turnover firm endured a fall in its bottom line of more than 10 per cent.

And profits at the Stonehouse headquartered operation also fell. It is the second year on the trot that the firm has endured difficult market conditions and a significant cut in revenue.

But despite the significant trend it remains part of The Raikes Journal’s Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series, which tracks the financial fortunes of the county’s biggest firms by turnover.

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A Gloucestershire-headquartered firm that is a leading wholesaler of computers, software and computer and telecommunications equipment has achieved a turnover in excess of £220 million last year.

The Cotswolds-based business reported an increase in revenue of more than 11 per cent compared to the same period of the previous financial year, with operating profit almost doubling.

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Major Gloucestershire employer, Cheltenham-headquartered engineering firm Spirax Sarco, has reported a fall in profits.

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I hope your week has gone well so far.

Welcome to our Thursday story ahead of Friday’s full edition. Those of you who follow Raikes will know our Monday’s publications are full editions, complete with news briefing notes, a picture story, focus on a county charity and then our big read lead story.

Thursday has morphed into a lead in its own right, usually long-form like most of our leads, and will arrive sometimes paywalled as we seek to make sustainable what we do - provide an independent, Gloucestershire-focused, journalistically and editorially-led digital magazine.

Today it’s a story about a business group that is one of the biggest operations by turnover in the county, and whose founder is fast-becoming the most high profile and maybe one of the most influential business leaders of the current era. Certainly the most high profile.

We don’t reveal too much about who it is just yet, or which business it is, because we want you to read the story. But some of you will have already guessed who it is.

Fridays sees another full edition sent out, and that will be the case tomorrow. And while you will be able to read the bulk of what is featured on that day’s editions it is more than likley a paywall will fall across part of its main long-form lead too (but not always). A paywall also falls across almost all of our copy after two weeks.

We have paying members who support us to think of - and it is them, our Founding Members, especially our Founding Partners and the others who hire our services to cover stories who enable to to do what we do - provide original journalism for the county. We think of that as our USP, but most of all - we hope you like it.

Best regards,

Andrew Merrell (editor).

If you have a story, an issue, a news item, a charity or an interview you want us to write about or investigate, challenge the powers that be on, then please email me: andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.

NB: We believe Raikes now publishes probably the best-read business-related email ‘newsletter’, pound for pound, in Gloucestershire. Readership is growing and 2025 looks good!

* The Raikes Journal is a community interest company. Everything you read by us is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.

If you subscribe and invite friends to The Raike Journal you will earn rewards towards complimentary membership (three referrals will get you one month, 10 will get you three months and 25 will win you six months).

Refer a friend

If you upgrade to paid you’ll be part of this CIC too. We are dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire, to championing the county, in particular its businesses, charities, education and training providers, and to helping create an even stronger community. If you upgrade to paid you will be able to see past the paywalls often put on our second and third email editions of the week, that lock all our archive after two weeks and lock our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series. You will be able to comment on our stories too. You’ll be helping make this CIC sustainable to deliver more original articles on our county.

You can sign up to receive your two extra editions a week and see past all our paywalls for just £2.30 a week - or £1.80 a week if two or more people sign up at once. Or go all in and become one of our Founding Partners or Founding Members!

Market forces prune Gloucestershire’s green giant

One of Gloucestershire’s very biggest group of businesses, in the top 10 by turnover alone, has just got markedly smaller – but no less exciting, and its leader no less determined to change the world.

By Andrew Merrell.

One of Gloucestershire’s top 10 biggest businesses by turnover saw its bottom line fall away significantly last year and profits disappear as it recorded a loss of several million pounds.

It’s a business group that declares its mission statement is ‘to fight climate change’ and to promote sustainability in all walks of life, with the vision of making a Green Britain and reducing the use of fossil fuels.

if you know the county well, you’ll probably have guessed who it is by now.

But it is also a group that last year saw its gross profits fall from £144.1 million to £95 million for the year ending 30 April 2024, with net profits plummeting from £38.3 million to a £7.8 million loss.

Despite all that, and climbing to an estimated top 4 in our Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series, sponsored by Randall & Payne (which follows the financial fortunes of the county’s biggest firms by turnover) its turnover is such that it remains in the top 10.

And it remains no less ambitious.

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One of the best-known engineering firms in Gloucestershire, and a major employer in the county, quietly returned to profit last year in some style, boosted by a 29 per cent increase in turnover.

The Tewkesbury-based business has customers world-wide, is part of a much bigger American-owned group that services the aerospace, defence and industrial markets.

As Raikes seeks to catch up with some of the outstanding results of 2024 as part of our Top 100 business in Gloucestershire series, sponsored by Randall & Payne, we turn our attention to Moog Controls Ltd, which employs 524 staff (up from 500 the previous year) at its UK headquarters at Ashchurch, Tewkesbury.

The Top 100 series follows the financial fortunes of the county’s biggest firms by turnover.

Back in 2023 the Moog Controls confirmed its commitment to the county by opening a new £40 million manufacturing facility beside its existing base off the A46.

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At the start of this year Cotswolds-headquartered Hercules Site Services was predicting a slow-down in growth after three consequentive years at 55 per cent.

The Cirencester-based plc supplies labour to the civil engineering sector for the likes of highways projects and to the rail industry and specialised operators for the water sector.

As it summed up its first full year of trading as an AIM-listed company Hercules said it did not predict such high levels of organic growth to continue, although it did say its pipelines for 2024 remained “robust”.

Then at the end of March it released its interim results and in a change of tune revealed its growth remained impressive, with revenues rising from £37 million to £48.8 million for the period.

It’s now made it official just how good 2024 has actually turned out with a trading statement for the year ending 30 September saying it expects to reveal record results with revenues of more than £105 million - an increase of 24 per cent on the year before (£87 million).

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Welcome to your Thursday edition of The Raikes Journal.

Looking around for positive stories as always we actually found plenty, but settled on one about a family business born, bred and thriving here in Gloucestershire.

Why? If you follow the news you probably heard about the mammoth construction firm ISG, on which 2,000 staff depended for their jobs and scores of subcontractors probably thought was rock solid too, until it went into administration in September.

As our main story below says the news put a focus on insolvencies in construction and at face value the figure for those won’t make you feel any more cheery either. But add a little more context, and perhaps it’s not quite so doom and gloom afterall.

And if you follow that by feasting on all of the main article below (the latest chapter in the story of fourth generation firm EG Carter) you might be forgiven for walking away with something of a spring in your step.

As we’ve started to tentatively say, we think our free Monday edition is not just among the best-read business dedicated emails in the county currently, it’s possibly the best-read. We like to think that’s because of our approach - original stories and proper journalism.

Nevertheless, as a growing business we continue to paywall many of our Thursday and Friday editions to enable us to continue to do what we do - writing and reporting on Gloucestershire, championing the county, supporting the third sector and creating community.

So you’ll be able to read some of the edition below, but not all of it unless you become one of our paying members. We’d love you to join the family.

Raikes is looking for more sponsors to join its current stable. If you are interested, please email andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk or telephone 07956 926061. We plan to release some figures shortly, but feel we are moving towards being able to claim to be the best read digital publication in Gloucestershire for business stories.

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Introducing another charity: The remarkable The Great Western Air Ambulance Charity

Few tales suggest more courage than this one. Reading about climbing Mount Everest never does justice to the challenge facing anyone who attempts the feat. But when you learn of Simon Clark’s journey it makes you stop and wonder. He is raising money for The Great Western Air Ambulance Charity which was instrumental in saving his life after a terrible car accident. The 44-year-old from Cirencester is still recovering from the crash that took the life of his partner and left paramedics describing him as the most broken patient they have ever seen – shattered bones, internal decapitations, punctured lungs, ruptured organs. Clark was told he would never recover, but he’s defied the odds and vowed to raise £4.5 million for the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity. He returned to the UK on Wednesday 2 October after reaching his target - Everest base camp. You can donate towards his cause here.

* Everything you read on The Raikes Journal is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.

If you upgrade to paid, you’ll be part of this community interest company too. In an era when local journalism is all but gone, we are dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire, to championing the county, in particular its businesses, charities, education and training providers, to defending it, challenging those who need to be held to account and to helping create an even stronger community. If you upgrade to paid you will be able to see past the paywalls on our second and third email editions of the week, that lock all our archive after two weeks and lock our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire, the series that follows the financial fortunes of our biggest firms by turnover. You will be able to comment on our stories too. You’ll be helping make this CIC sustainable. Please do join us.

You can sign up for just £2.30 a week - or £1.80 a week if two or more people sign up at once.

Your briefing notes 

🏎️ Architect Roberts Limbrick continues to progress plans for a manufacturing plant for a British-designed and made supercar on a Cotswold hillside. The Gloucester firm is acting on behalf of McMurtry Automotive Ltd, owned by Renishaw founder and billionaire Sir David McMurtry, who plans to begin production of the firm’s Spéirling electric hypercar, which can achieve 0-60 in 1.5 seconds and will retail at just under £1 million. If the scheme makes it through planning the site will be on farmland beside Renishaw's New Mills headquarters between Wotton-under-Edge and Charfield. 

⚙️ Family engineering business Poeton Industries, which has its headquarters on Eastern Avenue, Gloucester, has revealed a new managing director. James Poeton is the fifth generation to take the reins at the surface treatment specialist which employs an estimated 120 staff. The new MD graduated in chemical engineering from The University of Bath, spent 10 years in sales roles in the technology industry, and joined the family firm in 2020 on its management training programme. 

👩‍🏫🧠 QuoLux, the leadership development specialists which has become a key catalyst for change and growth for more firms that we have room to mention here - both in Gloucestershire and beyond - has just announced it has places on its next LEAD™ and LEADlight programs which are due to start soon. You may have seen the recent news of the sale of Creed Foodservice for £60 million, a firm which developed its leadership and management skills and culture by embedding QuoLux programmes in its business – and then grew to a business with more than £130 million turnover. Find out more here.

🏛️ Cheltenham Borough Council has listed its municipal offices on The Promenade for sale. Real estate firm, Avison Young, has been appointed to market the 68,290 square foot, Grade II* listed building. The council has been in the building for 100 years. Daniel Rich, director at Avison Young said the sale “represents an unrivalled opportunity. We’re anticipating strong interest from potential developers who want to take this heritage property into the future”.

Top 100: Major family construction firm reveals record year

The word ‘insolvency’ has dominated construction sector news of late, but Gloucestershire firm EG Carter has arrived to provide some cheer - a 30 per cent rise in turnover and a steady profit margin.

By Andrew Merrell

Few construction firms are as well known in Gloucestershire as family firm EG Carter, synonymous of late with the refurbishment of Gloucester’s King’s Square and numerous other public-and private sector work county-wide and beyond. 

Major commercial projects have included the near £700,000 fitout of Gloucester Rugby’s Training facilities in Kingsholm, the £600,000-plus alterations and enlargement of TK Maxx store in Cheltenham, and The Avening Ward at Cheltenham General Hospital.

It is also a business that has a healthy interest in the residential, general works and property services, and like most other firms in its sector will have seen the shock news of the demise of industry giant ISG that has left at least 2,000 staff out of work. 

The scale of the London-headquartered firm is hard to grasp. In 2022 turnover of the firm that built the likes of the Velodrome for the London 2012 Olympics was £2.18 billion, pre-tax profit were £11.5m and the highest paid director received £2.5 million.

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If you wanted to read a single story in our Top 100 series that underlined the impact on business of our nation’s failure to address housebuilding it is this one, based on the latest financial figures from Newland Homes.

Barely a week has gone by since our new Government was elected that construction and planning have not been mentioned, with deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, letting all of us know that reform of the planning system is coming and 300,000 new homes a year the target.

It is music to the ears of many house builders, who have been openly calling for reform till they are blue in the face.

At a recent Gloucestershire Property Forum event Raikes reported on Simon Firkin, of SF Planning, said that without help to encourage a thriving small to medium-sized housebuilders diversity would continue to be lost within the housing market. 

Speaking at the same event, Christopher Young KC, of No5 Barristers’ Chambers, said that proof existed - just take Tewkesbury borough - that if we build more houses prices will come down. 

The just-published annual results of Newland Homes, one of Gloucestershire’s long-standing small to medium-sized housebuilders, speaks volumes about all of the above - and of the impact a lack of action from Government is having on businesses.

Turnover is down, profit is down and it lays the blam firmly at the foot of the “the vagaries and inadequacy of the planning process”.

Story continues below for paid-for subscribers….

• 🔓 You can read free of charge across much of The Raikes Journal, but some of our stories - including our Top 100 series - are available in their entirety only to paid-up subscribers who enjoy the privilege for what amounts to as little as £2.30 a week (ask us about 20 per cent off for groups of two or more subscribers!). These subscribers help make this community interest company sustainable and able to continue to champion Gloucestershire’s business community, its charities and vital education and training sector, to help bring people together, make connections and build an even stronger community. They’re also supporting the renaissance of quality journalism in Gloucestershire - and for all that we’re truly grateful. If you are not already, please do consider joining them.

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