Family business saw turnover rise by almost £10m
We turn our attentions to a family business that’s grown from a husband and wife team in a Gloucester back street to a major success story; a group with a joint turnover that just keeps growing.
Dear readers,
Well aware a new hotel opens at The Forum in Gloucester today, we thought we’d ignore it. Not because it’s not a story, but because we’re working on something more about it than telling ‘a new hotel has opened’. And there is much more to tell, as you’ll see later this week.
When we do publish that story it should change your view about Gloucester and what’s happening in the city, right under our noses.
We also have more news on Gloucestershire Airport which is far more uplifting than the depressing situation that emerged when the collapse of the deal to sell the site was revealed.
But we’re saving that too.
Which brings us to today. Aside from the series of briefing notes below - including news of Ripjar, new restaurants in Gloucester, JM Socials, Pennant International and Gloucestershire Airport, we’ve backtracked somewhat to focus on the rise and rise of one of Gloucestershire’s most prominent family firms. We’ve been sitting on the story for a while now!
The detail we use actually became public at the very end of last year, but as no one else has yet even mentioned it we wanted to share - because it’s positive, and we all need a bit of that every now and again.
Congratulations to the Markey family and everyone who works at its group of businesses.
And speaking of significant growth, there’s a nice little story about Gloucester-based cold storage firm P&M Group too. With special thanks to Turn the Tables PR.
Best regards,
Andrew Merrell (editor).
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Acquisition revealed as turnover grows from £58m to £88m
The rapid growth of Gloucester-headquartered cold storage solutions specialists The P&M Group continues with the firm revealing another acquisition. It’s just bought Bradford-based HBCL Coldstores. Turnover has increased significantly for the city business, from £58 million in 2024/25 to £88m in 2025/26 with the firm predicting its “upward trajectory will continue”. Growth, it says, is driven by increased e-commerce demand, pharmaceutical logistics and food sector requirements. The deal also adds 27 more staff to the books of the group.
Your briefing notes…
🍽️ Two new restaurants are heading for Gloucester Quays. The ever-changing landscape of the Quays retail and leisure offer will see COSMO Restaurant Group open Umami in the vacant units next to Jack Wills on Orchard Street, serving Chinese, Italian, Indian and British dishes. Work to refit the space is due to start in April. And Muse Brasserie is due to open in the space formerly occupied by Côte Brasserie. Described as French-fusion food, it already has restaurants in Cheltenham and Bristol. Both will arrive hot on the heels of Banchina Italian, which has moved into the former TGI Friday’s space on Llanthony Road.
👷🏼♀️Will removal of the glass bridge between the Regent Arcade in Cheltenham and Cavendish House really make way for a new rooftop restaurant with views across the town? It’s certainly a proposal that’s gone to planning committee at the town’s borough council. But it’s also been on the cards for a number of years too. Weaver Demolition is not in situ in Regent Street and has begun the work on the bridge. All the businesses close to - even Japanese restaurant Kibou, which has an entrance directly beneath the bridge’s new scaffolded undercarriage - remain open.
🍺 Cheltenham-based pub and restaurant chain JM Socials has emerged as the new owners of the newly reopened Tavern on Royal Well Place in the town. The pub closed its doors in January after the previous owners had only been behind the bar for 12 months. But now it’s back, under the ownership of Jay Rahman, from JM Socials. Husband-and-wife team Thomas and Kathryn Law will run the kitchen. Rahman’s business now has 10 pubs and restaurants in Gloucestershire and Oxford.
🛩️ Calls for citizens’ assembly to decide the future of Gloucestershire Airport: There are calls for residents to have more of a say on the future of Gloucestershire Airport in the form of a citizens’ assembly. Plans to sell the 375-acre site in Staverton, which is jointly owned by Cheltenham Borough Council and Gloucester City Council, fell through earlier this month after more than eight months of negotiations. Horizon Aero Group, the preferred bidder, was unable to raise the capital required to complete the purchase of the site. The councils are now exploring a number of potential options.
📉 Pennant International Group, the systems support software and training solutions company, has reported a ‘challenging year’ with its revenue falling from £13.8m to £9.7m. It also reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of £400,000 compared to £1.7m profit in 2024. Adjusted pre-tax losses increased to £1.9m from a £300,000 loss the year before. The year also saw the firm undergo a restructuring. It said it enters 2026 with “the group enters the year with increasing momentum and a clearer pathway to sustainable performance and profitability”.
Family business saw turnover rise by almost £10m
We turn our attentions to a family business that’s grown from a husband and wife team in a Gloucester back street to a major success story; a group with a joint turnover that just keeps growing.
Something about family businesses captures the imagination, especially when the story begins with a husband and wife team and the simple need to make a living. The ones that go on from there to become significant operations are even more special, and their stories well worth telling.
Which is why we thought we would zoom in on MG Markey Group, a business empire built by the Markey family that has created hundreds of jobs since its foundation and which actually published the figures we reference here at the very end of 2025.
Today the prominent family firm is a force that employs 300-plus staff (14 of which were created in the last 12 months) and its turnover places it within our Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series, which follows the fortunes of the county’s biggest companies by turnover.
From a simple construction firm started by Brendan and May Markey in 1963 in their home in Granville Street, Gloucester, it has grown under their son’s watch to encompass construction, manufacturing, asset management for social and supported housing, residential care, student accommodation and even petrol forecourts.
Businesses include the fast-growing kitchen-maker Premier Kitchens, also based on Quadrant Distribution Centre, Hardwicke.
The group’s construction projects have spread across areas including Birmingham, Bristol, the Forest of Dean, Southampton, Fairford, Cheltenham, Gloucester and Western-Super-Mare.
What really caught our attention, though, is what happened to its balance sheet during its last financial year - which is why we’ve back-tracked three months to to pick up the news.
Turnover leapt by almost a third from £32.1 million in 2024 to £41.7m in 2025 and gross profits increased significantly too, from £10.2m to £13.2 during the same period.
Total income for the year after tax and other expenses was actually down, from £1.7m to £1.5m.
Paul Markey, managing director of MG Markey Group, said: “Gross profits increased by £3m on the prior year, a reflection of strong turnover growth in the construction and manufacturing businesses whilst maintaining comparable gross margin rates year on year.
“Increases in administrative expenses reflected the costs associated with a 22 per cent increase in sales volumes in manufacturing and 57 per cent increase in turnover in construction.
“Administrative costs reduced to 25 per cent of sales revenue, a demonstration of the economies of scale realised from the growth in revenues.
“The student let property operation maintained full occupancy with the properties in the portfolio continuing to attract strong rental levels in the markets and locations they serve.
“The group remains well supported by its strong property asset base and the quality of these assets underpinned a facility re-finance at improved terms.”
According to the company its manufacturing business “has a strong and growing reputation in the social housing sector and has committed to a growth plan with a multi-million-pound investment in upgraded plant and machinery,” which was due for delivery early this year.
The manufacturing business has grown by 86 per cent in the last five years, with the capital investment providing the basis from which to continue this growth trajectory.
Occupancy remains at historical levels in its student and short-term let business.
Work also continues to identify investment opportunities to increase the number of beds under management.
When one of its businesses, Markey Construction, ceased to trade a little over a decade ago, the name was incorporated into the group.
At the time the business said the decision to refocus the business would “play to its strengths” and “provide job security” and allow the group to “move forward with confidence”.
Not bad predictions at all.