Background
In 2013, Horizon Capital mapped the facilities management market and identified Bellrock as an attractive platform for transformation into a technology-enabled, white-collar provider of specialist risk focused workplace & property management services.
Today, Bellrock is recognised as a market leader, serving more than 700 public sector and commercial customers across the UK and Ireland, with nearly 90% of its revenues recurring and a contracted order book covering 3 years forward revenues. All Bellrock’s services are underpinned by a world-leading technology platform, helping improve customer service, reduce cost and mitigate risk.
The Journey so far
At completion, Horizon Capital recruited a sector expert Chairman and over time strengthened the management team bringing in a new CEO, FD, CTO, sales and operational heads. The new team successfully repositioned the business, helping drive above-market organic growth, M&A activity and profitability.
Horizon Capital invested heavily in Bellrock’s technology backbone. On exit, the business offered a differentiated one-stop, data analytics platform, driving efficiency and providing complete transparency for its customers over costs and compliance. The business continued to enjoy a strong presence in the public sector, managing healthcare and education settings as well as geographically spread, complex and multi-site private sector property portfolios.
At the time of acquisition, Bellrock’s sales and marketing engine had been neglected. Horizon supported significant investment in order to take advantage of the market opportunity, helping drive saw above-average growth rates for the sector.
Buy and Build
Twelve add-on acquisitions were completed during the investment period. Acquisitions added technology capability, adjacent high-value compliance services that could be cross-sold and scale for the core business across both existing and new verticals.
Realisation
During the investment period revenues and profits grew more than fourfold, driven by both organic growth and add on acquisitions. Contracts for the sale of Bellrock to Sun European Partners were exchanged in September 2021.