Gloucestershire tech business in £2bn deal talks
When it featured in a recent list of fast-growing UK tech firms the spotlight revealed not just the scale of a little-known Tewkesbury business, but news it could be the subject of a £2blln deal.
Dear readers,
We had hoped to start 2026 with word of the campaign below already being driven hard by a brilliant Gloucestershire charity, but we come to it late. Nevertheless, hopefully we can help put some wind in the sails of its work. Or rather, all of us can - and rid ourselves of some clutter as we go!
You’ll also find our piece on a quite incredible gym that’s been opened in Gloucester, one part of a major investment in the county by a fast-growing multi-million pound American-headquartered home gym business. Only Gloucester Rugby team’s personal gym possibly tops this one.
It explains why it chose Gloucestershire as its UK base when it could have chosen anywhere.
There are some diary dates and a couple of business news shorts too And then we’re onto the main story - about a fast-growing Gloucestershire business born and bred.
What particularly caught our eye was not the news that it already has funding support equivalent to £1.04 billion, but that it’s apparently been in takeover talks with a major UK business with the figure attached to that deal being £2bn pounds.
Which means is owner, a businessman from the county, would be on the verge of doing very well for himself indeed.
Have a great week.
Best regards,
Andrew Merrell (editor).
Charity of the week: Join us on the Great Gloucestershire Mouse Hunt
This is a much-overdue article by us, but we hope it is still in time to help a brilliant Gloucestershire charity with its big campaign to kick-off 2026.
Cheltenham-headquartered ITSA Digital Trust recycles computers, helping disadvantaged people across Gloucestershire as well as schools in Africa too.
Since 2004 it has helped an estimated 6.6 million people with refurbished laptops and desktops, many of which are donated by partners including Renishaw, Gloucestershire College, Cheltenham Borough Council, Kholer Mira. UCAS, Ecotricity and Spirax Sarco.
Its close ties with business also help bring to life its Social Value Business Club, whose members include Willans LLP.
What continues to delay its work, however, is something very simple that many of us can help with - when it gets given computers they regularly come without USB mice, keyboards or power leads and cables.
They can make all the difference to the usability and performance, and under its campaign banner, The Great Gloucestershire Mouse Hunt, ITSA is appealing for donations of any or all of the above.
It hopes to collect 1,000 of each. It doesn’t matter whether you have just one lead or one mouse or ne keyboard to give, every one will make a difference. There are countless drop-off points county-wide. You can find all of them here.
American fitness brand explains why its invested heavily in Gloucestershire
Only if you’ve set foot in Gloucester Rugby’s training gym beside Kingsholm stadium will you have seen a gym as impressive as a new facility just opened at the other end of the city.
American family firm REP Fitness has just invested heavily in transforming a 40,000 square foot facility at St Modwen Park, on the Stonehouse side of junction 9 of the M5 - capable of holding £10m worth of stock.
At its heart - for those who like to get their hands on what they are buying and see the equipment in action - is a 6,200 square foot gym, a showroom that was being put through its paces when Raikes turned up by some famous names from TV’s Gladiators.
Shane McGrotty, one of the two brothers from Colorado in the United States of America who founded the home gym and fitness firm, was also on hand.
Last year REP Fitness, the business he started with his brother, Ryan, in their garage in 2012, turned over $130 million (an estimated £95 million) and according to recent figures from Deloitte and EuropeActive Europe is undergoing a fitness boom, with the UK the second largest market behind Germany.
“We are a 100 per cent family business. We don’t have shareholders to keep happy or influence our decisions, We have customers to keep happy.
“We honed our business skills in the school of hard knocks. What we have done is listen to the customer. The customer is not always right, of course, but the customer is always first,” said McGrotty, at 39 the junior to his 44-year-old brother.
Intent on keeping that DNA within the British operation, REP has brought over some American staff too. The new facility has created an estimated 30-plus jobs, the job of managing director being taken by a former major in the British Army, Richard Millbank, also the chairman of Cirencester Rugby Club, who moves to the business after three years in the City of London.
Why Gloucestershire?
“We can get to Bristol, Birmingham and South Wales quickly from here. The connections are good. There are an estimated 11.2 million people within a two hour drive of here. We expect people to want to come and see before they buy too. It’s perfect,” said Millbank.
Briefing Notes
💷 A finance provider to tech companies in the UK, which has its headquarters in Cheltenham, has secured a £10 million lending facility with Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance. PayItMonthly works with more than 10,000 businesses, networks and trade associations to help them offer flexible payment potions to their customers. Its service offers customers the option to split purchases of up to £10,000 into interest-free instalments over 12 months. PayItMonthly, which was founded in 2015 by Chris and Brian Pursey, is said to operate with an entirely UK-based team and keeps all debt within the business rather than selling it on.
🚗🚗🚗🚗 There are serious concerns that building thousands of new homes near Gloucester will worsen the rush hour traffic “gridlock” on the A40. District planners in the Forest of Dean are proposing the creation of two new settlements to help meet their 12,000-home housing target. Councillors approved consulting the public on their blueprint at their meeting last week. And the local plan will set out where new developments should take place in their area until 2045. However, villagers are concerned over the lack of infrastructure available to cope with the extra homes. One of the new towns could be at Churcham with 2,000 homes. More here.
Diary dates
Tuesday
GCC carbon workshop – ‘Supporting SME suppliers for a Greener Gloucestershire’. Speakers including Toby Walker, Andrew McKenzie, and Richard Markey are due to lead this workshop for SME suppliers. From 9.30am to 11.30am at The Growth Hub, Stroud (SGS College, Stratford Road). More here.
Wednesday
Gloucestershire County Council are providing this free one-hour information session specifically for Gloucestershire’s VCSE organisations all about the forthcoming local government reorganisation. From 6pm to 7pm. More here.
Thursday
Cirencester Chamber of Commerce is hosting an evening with Ben Gallagher at the Royal Agricultural University from 6pm to 8pm. Former Special Forces, Gallagher will share his story of dealing with complex trauma to becoming a professional athlete. More here.
Friday
If you ever wanted to have a look at Gloucestershire’s newest shared workspace at its newest office development, here’s your chance. Gloucester BID is staging its Connections over Coffee event at Patch at The Forum, Gloucester, from 10am to 11.30am. More here.
Future thinking…
Real Estate unlocked: Dispute Resolution seminar. We’re flagging this one well-ahead of its start-date. On 3 February at 3.45pm to 5.30pm the team from Willans, one of the Founding Partners of The Raikes Journal, will deliver the second in a series covering everything from lease terms to litigation. Insight and networking opportunities. More here.
Gloucestershire College is due to stage its Apprenticeship Open Evening 2026, where county employers who excel at delivering apprenticeships across the sectors will lay out their stalls to wannabe apprentices. Due to take place between 5pm and 8pm on 25 February. 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.
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Could this Gloucestershire tech business be about to do a deal worth £2bn?
When it featured in a recent list of fast-growing UK tech firms the spotlight revealed not just the scale of a little-known Tewkesbury business, but news it could be the subject of a £2bn deal with a broadband giant.
If you consider yourself a watcher of all things business in Gloucestershire and don’t know the name of the fast-growing Tewkesbury firm Netomnia, you may be left wondering why after reading this.
It’s been revealed that the alternative full-fibre network provider plans to merge its two retail internet providers, Brsk and YouFibre, bringing them both under YouFibre latter brand.
Hot on the heels of that news the firm has just been named in the Sunday Times 100, which ranks the UK’s fastest growing private companies.
But that’s not what really prompted this article. And neither is it because the firm already has access to funding support equivalent to £1.04 billion.
