Airport buyer explains why the deal is off
When we broke the story on Friday that the much-trumpeted deal to buy Gloucestershire Airport was off, one question wasn’t really answered. Why?
Dear readers,
Welcome to Monday’s edition of The Raikes Journal.
We follow Friday’s lead about the collapse of the sale of Gloucestershire Airport with a follow-up. We ask the business that was in line to buy the 152 hectare site between Gloucester and Cheltenham why it is no longer going to do that.
Put together with the comments rushed out on Friday by the airport’s owners, Gloucester City Council and Cheltenham Borough Council - who still seemed to believe Horizon would have been the right choice - the statement makes for interesting reading.
Plus, we carry news of the latest business to borrow the expertise of Gloucestershire businessman par excellence, Bob Holt, could have made a standalone lead on its own. But we’ve included its exciting news below.
And then there’s the detail on this week’s Gloucestershire Growth Forum.
By the way, if you would like to sign up as a sponsor of The Raikes Journal for 2026, and get involved in our forthcoming series of articles - and get mentions in every one of them - then please get in touch (andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk).
Enjoy.
Best regards,
Andrew Merrell (editor).
Gloucestershire Growth Forum
Manager IT service provider Emerge Digital is due to stage its Gloucestershire Growth Forum at Kingsholm Stadium on Wednesday. Speakers will include Rugby World Cup winners Mo Hunt and Zoe Stratford, with experts from Willans LLP solicitors, Abbey Business Interiors, Clarkson Evans, Freemans Event Partners and WSP Solicitors.
Under the umbrella theme ‘unlocking growth through AI’ the half-day event is aimed at Gloucestershire business leaders, combining real growth stories with practical AI.
Hunt and Stratford will share lessons from elite sport and the growth of women’s rugby, Tom Henson, managing director of Emerge Digital, will look at how SMEs transform in the AI era, with an overall focus on what’s next for AI at work.
Nigel Church, the Cheltenham firm’s CEO, and Mel Cheeseman, its ApexAI programme director, will be available for further briefings and discussion.
Due to take place on Wednesday 18 March from 8am to 1.15pm at Kingsholm Stadium. More here.
Diary dates
Tuesday
🤖 Business Risk: Cyber & Risk Management. John Fisher, managing director of Westway IT, is due to lead this one at the Forest of Dean Growth Hub, Vantage Point Business Village, Mitcheldean. From 10am to 1pm.
Wednesday
🏘️ Willans LLP solicitors’ experienced property dispute lawyers are hosting a free, in-person seminar to provide an update on the Renters’ Rights Act at 4pm. The Bill is described as “representing the most significant reform to the private rental sector in decades”. Significant changes include the abolition of “no-fault” evictions, the introduction of rolling tenancies, limits on rent increases, and the new Decent Homes Standard. The event is aimed at landlords and their agents. More here.
Thursday
🤖 The People Side of AI: How to Future-Proof Your Roles, Skills and Culture. Cheltenham specialists HR People Support is due to stage this one, at Festival House, Cheltenham, from 9am to 11am. More here.
Future thinking… more diary dates
🏇 Willans LLP solicitors and Cheltenham Open Door, the Cheltenham-headquartered law firm’s nominated charity for the year, invite you to join them for an evening of fun, fundraising and friendly competition. The entry fee, which all goes to the charity, puts you and a team in with a chance of winning one or more of six recorded races. Price includes two drinks and pizza. The date has been moved from the end of February to 23 April. At The Bottle of Sauce, Cheltenham, from 6pm. More here.
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, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.
If you upgrade to become a paid subscriber you’ll be part of this CIC too. You’ll help make us sustainable, be able to see past the paywalls, comment on our stories, and know you’re making possible the county’s only editorially-led platform dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire about its businesses, charities, education and training sectors.
Sign up 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!
Briefing notes…
💷 Tewkesbury-based Cleaner Safer Group (CSG), the parent organisation of HETAS and Woodsure, has announced its formal merger with the Building Compliance Testers Association (BCTA), uniting five respected certification and compliance schemes under a single governance structure. The merger, which took place earlier this month, brings together complementary expertise spanning solid fuel, biomass, wood fuel quality, air tightness, sound insulation, and domestic ventilation commissioning, and expands CSG’s reach across the built environment sector. More here.
🏡 Expert article: Buying or selling a property? Important changes are on the way. From 30 March 2026, updates to conveyancing protocol forms will require sellers to provide more detailed information earlier on. In this article, our residential property expert Héloïse Brittain of Willans LLP solicitors explains all you need to know here.
💷 More multi-million contract wins for Bob Holt’s latest business
A business registered in Gloucestershire that came to light just two years ago has announced two more multi-million contract wins - and plans to raise £3.5 million to add another firm to its portfolio.
In September we were helping break the news about the latest business to plug into the expertise of Bob Holt OBE, its impressive first six months of trading in 2025 and how it raised £1 million overnight.
Just six months after that grand reveal EARNZ plc is back with news of two significant multi-million contract wins for firms in its group, and a share placing expected to raise a further £3.5 million.
The funds will help it add the business Zero Carbon Group to its portfolio.
Holt, who famously took Gloucestershire-headquartered Mears Group from a small business to one which today has a turnover in excess of a £billion and an order book three times that, first became talked about in the same breath as EARNZ plc in early 2024.
Under his stewardship the shell company hit the headlines for raising £4 million on the alternative investment market (AIM), and declaring its ambition to seek to invest in businesses in energy services and net zero sectors.
New of its latest contract wins “endorse its strategic position” according to the business, which has its registered offices at St James House, St James Square, Cheltenham - the same address as one of Holt’s long-standing collaborators, BPE Solicitors.
A&D Carbon Solutions, which Earns acquired in July 2025, has been successfully awarded a contract by Fortem, working on behalf of Sanctuary Housing, on an initial two-year contract. Work across Stoke-on-Trent and Chester will commence in April 2026 providing retrofit insulation, ventilation upgrades, and renewable energy solutions to homes.
“Initially annual revenues are anticipated to be £2.6 million per annum, with a potential extension for a further 12-18 months.
“EARNZ will be delivering its services via National Retrofit Solutions, our recently formed subsidiary business, based in Stafford,” said the business.
EARNZ’s subsidiary business, Warm Low Living, has also been commissioned to start survey design work on a contract for a consortium of social housing providers in Yorkshire, a deal expected to generate revenue of £2.1m.
It follows on from news in October 2025 that its Warm Low Living business had secured a one -year £1.2m contract with the sustainable regeneration specialist Equans, to supply and install insulation, ventilation upgrades, and renewable energy solutions to 92 privately owned homes in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
Airport buyer tells us why the deal is off
When we broke the story on Friday that the much-trumpeted deal to buy Gloucestershire Airport was off, one question wasn’t really answered. Why?
By Andrew Merrell.
In June last year, after some missives of the local political kind had been exchanged between Gloucester and Cheltenham, we learned the Gloucestershire Airport was for sale, and a month later a buyer was named.
The 375-acre (152 hectares) site between the two urban centres has been run by a private company on behalf of its owners, Gloucester City Council and Cheltenham Borough Council for years, but after bankrolling it to their financial detriment the local authorities said enough was enough.
That preferred bidder was named as Horizon Aero Group, an Anglo-Indian venture which had apparently offered upwards of £25 million for the site.
From the off the local authorities were keen to tell anyone who would listen that due diligence would be done, that this buyer was the one – and the deal would ensure the airport remained operational.
But heavy flak immediately came in from businesses on the site claiming a lack of communication from the council, that they had not been consulted, that the preferred bidder had no experience running an airport and was in it for the potential land grab - with no intention of keeping the airport running.
Some argued that if the councils sold it for houses instead the site would fetch the cash-strapped councils – Gloucester revealing a £17 million black hole in its accounts in later 2025 – as much as £400 million.
All of which was contested by the local authorities.
And then came last week’s bombshell. After a conspicuous lack of completion of the deal, businesses that are tenants at the airport were told on Friday morning that it was off.
As a result of calls by The Raikes Journal to the councils a press release was hastily prepared and sent out on social media at the exact same time as we published. Funny that.
Reaction on social media was scathing, with Ian Mean, formerly of Business West, calling the situation “ a farce”.
Horizon Aero Group would have made a great partner, if we’re reading the comments from council leaders correctly. Which suggest something else was afoot.
It appears to have come down to money.
Horizon’s statement suggests a lack of confidence by whoever had originally been prepared to back Horizon’s deal that the UK is just not a place it wants to invest afterall.
Sagar Singamsetty, general counsel for Vayu Aviation Services and Horizon Aero Group, said:
“Horizon Aero Group is disappointed to confirm that the proposed acquisition of Gloucestershire Airport will not proceed, despite the dedicated efforts and commitment from all parties involved over recent months.
“The current aviation market presents significant challenges, including geopolitical uncertainties, the airport’s escalating operational losses, and a broader perception among investors that the UK is less open for business.
“These factors have collectively made securing viable investment unachievable at this time.
“We extend our sincere thanks to the councils, colleagues, and business partners for their unwavering support throughout this process.
“We wish them every success in their future endeavours for the airport and the local community.”
In the councils’ press release on Friday councillor Rowena Hay, leader of the borough council, said: “After a long period of due diligence, we are disappointed that we couldn’t reach an agreement to deliver that and proceed with the sale to Horizon Aero Group.
‘’We fully appreciate the concern this will cause, particularly for those employed at the airport who will have worked hard to support the sale process.’’
Councillor Jeremy Hilton, the leader of the city council, called the news “disappointing”, suggesting the decision not to continue was not to do with the lack of a clear commitment to continued flying on the site by Horizon.
If it went ahead, the deal “would have provided a strong future for the site”.
Read more…
Gloucestershire Airport sale collapses
Airport deal could sell Gloucestershire short, warns business
Has the sale of Gloucestershire Airport hit political turbulence?
Speculation over the real future of Gloucestershire Airport is sky high