Utilities and property services specialist, the Fastflow Group, has acquired affordable housing developer, Partner Group, for an undisclosed sum.
Based in the North East and with an office in Derby, Partner has completed over 2,000 new houses on 82 sites across the UK over the past seven years.
Working mainly with registered social housing providers, Partner strives to create desirable, sustainable communities in which people are proud to live and has an A1 rating from both the NHBC and Premier Guarantee. The order book is in excess of £100 million and in 2016-17 it reported a 190% jump in profits, to £1.7 million.
The Fastflow Group turnover in the same year was £79 million, with a reported pre-tax profit of £9.3 million and an order book in excess of £300 million. The enhanced group will provide work for almost 800 people and is forecast to push turnover well beyond the £120 million mark in the next financial year.
From bases in Washington, Tyne and Wear and Warrington, Greater Manchester, Fastflow provides infrastructure maintenance and improvement services to Northumbrian Water and Scottish Water and a wide range of high pressure gas transmission engineering projects for clients such as National Grid and Cadent Gas.
From Thame, Oxfordshire it delivers planned and responsive repairs for housing associations owning around 200,000 homes across the south of the UK.
Last March, Fastflow Group secured significant capital backing from Elysian Capital to support its growth plans and this has facilitated the acquisition of Partner.
Fastflow has acquired 100% of the share capital of the Partner Group and will put in place an investment and development strategy, creating more jobs and continuing to develop sustainable housing communities.
Welcoming the Partner team to the Fastflow Group, Chief Executive Officer, Neil Armstrong, said: “We are looking forward to working with our new colleagues.
“As well as growing our overall business, this deepening focus on the affordable housing sector hugely adds to the offer we have for property providers. For customers whose homes we currently maintain and repair, we can now help to deliver new build housing targets. With our support, Partner can increase its service offer with additional capacity for new housing, backed by high quality, focused, maintenance and repair programmes.
“The business ethos of the Partner team very much mirrors that of Fastflow, in particular our attention to safety, quality and customer service. I believe that both organisations will learn from each other to become even stronger and I very much look forward to working with our new people to support further growth and improvement.”
Barry Smith founder and Managing Director of Partner Construction, added: “We see this as an extremely positive development for the business. The Fastflow senior management team has demonstrated a real commitment to support further growth and development and I feel very confident of a bright future for Partner as part of a larger group and all the expertise and support that offers.”
To find out more about both companies visit www.fastflow.co.uk and www.partnerconstruction.co.uk