Nurture Group Strengthens Its National Network In The North

Nurture Landscapes Group, the fastest growing nationwide green services provider, has completed another key acquisition, and follows on from its £60m investment by All Seas Capital in the spring, with the purchase of Northern Estates Services Ltd (NESL) in Lancashire.

The acquisition – the Group’s ninth in the past twelve months alone – is an important step in consolidating its footprint in the North, bringing additional delivery capability from Carlisle in the north to Stoke in the south.

With its reputation for high quality services and clients, NESL has been admired by the leadership team of Nurture Group for some while, making its acquisition an attractive proposition and a relationship that the Group has nurtured actively over several years.

Employing 120 people, NESL was founded in 2007 by husband-and-wife team Mark and Kathy Ridehalgh, operating out of a Head Office farm unit in Blacko, Lancashire, supported by an operational unit in Bradford, Yorkshire.

Over 15 years NESL has grown its annual sales to £4m, becoming one of the leading landscape and arboriculture maintenance businesses in the North of England with a strong client base and servicing several prestigious rural estates. Included amongst its diverse and mainly B2B clients, and in close alignment with Nurture Group’s own commercial model, major clients include Savills, Workman, Fisher German, Peel Holdings, Skyscape and Lee Baron, many of which were already Nurture clients in other regions.

Mirroring Nurture’s robust emphasis on protecting the environment, NESL has maintained a strong focus on its sustainability credentials, with its head office operations focused on zero waste, heating from its own biomass unit and regeneration of water for herbicide spraying, machine washing and other processes.

Both founders will be supporting Nurture’s two Northern directors, Andy Williams and Will Pettit, with the integration, helping to consolidate the Nurture brand in the North with a view to trading fully as Nurture by the beginning of October.

Mark Ridehalgh said: “We have long admired the Nurture Group and watched its stellar growth with great respect over the years, and so it’s a huge privilege and a matter of personal satisfaction for both Kathy and myself to be selling our pride and joy to the market’s number one green services group. We know our customers simply could not be in safer hands.”

Peter Fane, Nurture Group founder and executive chairman, added: “NESL operates through four key service lines which have strong alignment with our own verticals:  grounds maintenance services and extra works, representing some two-thirds of NESL’s revenue, winter maintenance & gritting, arboriculture services, and civil works comprising essentially hard landscaping and ad hoc works.  This, together with a super client base which matches ours, and a shared vision for a more sustainable world and business, was always going to be the perfect match.  We really are delighted.”

Further information about Nurture Landscapes Group can be found at www.nurture-group.co.uk

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