Peninsula widens reach with Croner deal

PENINSULA Business Services, the health and safety and employment law consultancy, has added £22.5m (€31m) and 270 staff with a key acquisition.

The company owned by Betfred founders Fred and Peter Done, has bought Leicestershire-based Croner Group from listed Dutch company Wolters Kluwer for an undisclosed sum.

Croner operates in a similar market place to Peninsula, but focuses on larger organisations across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, unlike SME-focused Peninsula.

Peninsula heralded the deal as a “landmark step” in confirming its as market leader in the UK for HR, tax, business safety and wellbeing advice. In the year to the end of March Peninsula made profits of £24.5m on revenies of £116m.

For existing customers of both companies, business will continue as usual, with Croner HR consulting services continuing to be offered under the Croner brand, which was acquired as part of the transaction. The Croner fee protection and tax business will complement Peninsula’s existing Taxwise business and will operate under a new unified brand of Croner Taxwise.

Croner, based at Hinckley, near Leicester, will continue to run as a standalone business within the Peninsula Group.
 
Peter Done, managing director of Peninsula, said: “This is an exciting acquisition which complements Peninsula’s existing business, in that both organisations focus on different sectors of the marketplace. Along with the software and information services offered by Wolters Kluwer, we can now provide a one stop shop for any size organisation,”.

Operations director Alan Price added: “We have the talent and systems in place to further enhance this long established business. Our aim is to take the best of both operating models and propositions to create two enhanced market leading offerings across both brands in the SME and corporate sector.”