The Nurture Group has completed a round of investment worth nearly £60 million

The investment comes from All Seas Capital, a pan-European private capital fund that provides transformational capital solutions to leading founder- and-entrepreneur-owned companies. All Seas Capital’s two founding principals, Mr Cristobal Cuart and Mr Marc Ciancimino, will take a place on Nurture’s main board.

Nurture Landscapes Group, headquartered in Windlesham, Surrey, was founded in 2008 by Peter Fane who comes from a long family line of horticulture specialists. Since then, the Group, a living wage employer with a strong pedigree of environmental responsibility and practice, has emerged into one of the largest and most successful green services businesses in the UK.  With almost 2,000 staff directly employed, sales this year are predicted to be in excess of £140m. The business received investment from Graphite Capital in 2018.

The Group is a multi-award-winning national service provider of grounds maintenance services, landscape construction services, winter gritting, pest control and interior & exterior plant displays, providing ‘one stop’ integrated services to a wide and diverse client base across the UK.  Work ranges from the green open spaces of Jubilee Gardens to university campus estates like University College London, through to the more industrial environments of Royal Mail’s 1600 nationwide depots requiring grounds maintenance and winter gritting.

In the past year, the Group has completed seven acquisitions, approaching its 50th overall, with the aim being to accelerate this growth organically and through a careful choice of acquisitions comprising a blend of small and mid-market businesses to augment the expanding nationwide network and enrich the service and benefits to customers nationwide.

Identifying a clear plan to achieve this, Nurture Landscapes Group’s strong management and the All Seas Capital team will earmark acquisitions that will add density and national scale to the group that specifically enhances customer convenience, accessibility and value. By consolidating like-minded businesses in this way it will seek to deepen customer relationships and be more efficient and price competitive.

Currently operating across some 70 depots and 20,000 sites throughout the UK, the Group’s aim is to be the UK’s leading green service provider, achieving net zero by 2030. A carbon neutral business in accordance with the global PAS 2060 standard, it delivers sustainable, industry leading services and endeavours to build lasting relationships with its customers, colleagues, and supply partners.

A proven entrepreneur, Peter Fane, founder and executive chairman of Nurture,along with his brother Mark – the owner of Crocus, the UK’s largest online garden nursery business – owned and ran a grounds maintenance company called Waterers Landscape. This was sold in 2003, having developed into, at the time, one of the leading corporate grounds maintenance companies in the country.  A key feature of his approach to business has been to foster an environment in which people can share in his success and the opportunities that this creates.

Commenting on All Seas Capital’s investment, Peter Fane said: “We have built a successful business to date, but are excited for the next stage of growth. We’re delighted that All Seas Capital is backing our business to help us accelerate our growth. In taking this step, we were not just looking for capital investment, but also a partner that can add real value with their expertise to grow and strengthen the business. We have found that in All Seas and are looking forward to working with them. We would also like to thank Graphite Capital for their successful investment partnership with us over the last five years.”

Nurture Landscapes Group and the shareholders were advised by PWC for corporate finance and structuring, Stephenson Harwood for legal matters, and BDO for financial and tax due diligence. All Seas Capital was advised by King & Spalding for legal matters, RSM for financial and tax due diligence, and Deloitte for structuring.

Marc Ciancimino, co-founder of All Seas Capital, comments: “All Seas Capital is developing a reputation for providing flexible, hybrid non-control capital to established founder- and entrepreneur-owned companies that have already reached a certain scale but can benefit from our support and capital. Partnering with us serves as a catalyst for growth and development, while enabling business owners to retain control and preserving their culture, which is highly appealing.”

Commenting for the outgoing investors, Graphite Capital, Mike Tilbury, said: “We are delighted to have been an investor in Nurture for the last four and a half years. In that period Nurture has grown substantially, both organically and through acquisition, and has significantly diversified its service offering, positioning it well for an exciting future.”