Environmental buy-and-build group buys Brownfield Solutions

Environmental services business Brownfield Solutions has been sold to Celnor Group, a compliance group backed by Inflexion Private Equity.

With offices in Northwich and Bromsgrove, Brownfield Solutions provides geo-environmental services to property owners and developers, including site investigation and contaminated land risk assessment to support planning, due diligence, project feasibility, development design and remediation on both brownfield and greenfield sites.

Celnor is a group of businesses in the testing, inspection, certification and compliance (TICC) arena with an ambitious buy and build strategy.

Environmental consultancies are hot property right now, with investors keen to have ESG compliant businesses in their investment portfolios, as well as the demand for popular consulting service lines.

Reading-based Celnor is openly seeking new acquisitions in the UK, Europe or North America with annual profits between £250,000 and £10 million that work in testing, analysis, certification, or compliance related services.

Jeremy Cole and Joe Russell of Manchester corporate finance boutique Cole Associates Corporate Finance advised the shareholders of Brownfield.

Simon Parrington, Celnor founder and Group CEO commented: “Brownfield Solutions is a business with a strong reputation that will fit perfectly alongside GIP in our geo-environmental sector. The two companies offer complementary services and the acquisition extends both our geographic coverage and technical capability.

Brownfield Solutions Director Tony Hewitt commented: “We are proud of what we have built over the last 18 years and want to continue for the next 18 years. Celnor shares our values and cares about developing and supporting employees. Joining Celnor offers Brownfield Solutions a platform for growth and the and the support we need to focus on the technical delivery of services for customers.”

Fellow Director James Jacob agreed: “Simon’s vision for Celnor aligns strongly with what Tony and I want for the future of our company and, most importantly for our people. I’m delighted with our acquisition by Celnor and consider this to be an exciting and very positive step in the development and future growth of Brownfield Solutions.”