The Landscape Group

Sector: Business Services

Status: Realised

Fund: I

Deal type: Management buyout

Investment date: March 2008

Realisation date: March 2015

The Landscape Group is a leading UK-wide provider of contracted grounds maintenance that expanded significantly - and won prestigious work in the Olympic Park and Royal Parks - during our investment.

"The Landscape Group changed significantly during Elysian's ownership. With the challenge of austerity impacting our local authority customers, they helped us define the strategy and then actively supported us through the transformation process as we reshaped the business into a high quality national player largely focused on contracted ground maintenance."

Nick Temple-Heald

Chief Executive, The Landscape Group

Investment rationale

We were attracted by the long-term local authority contracts at a time when further outsourcing was very likely with the financial pressures on local government funding.

The growth strategy for The Landscape Group was a three-pronged approach:

Win new business.
Retain existing local authority contracts and aim to deliver grounds maintenance services, in a sustainable and profitable manner.
Extend geographic reach through acquisitions in a fragmented sector.

Creating value

Under our ownership, The Landscape Group grew from 600 employees and £38m in revenues to more than 1,000 staff and £50m in revenues.

We sold our stake in the company in March 2015 to Idverde, a France-based private equity-backed landscape maintenance business.

Idverde had targeted The Landscape Group because it provided it with the best cultural fit in the UK, as well as solid financial performance and the strongest management team in its sector.

The enlarged group represented the biggest specialist landscaping and grounds maintenance business in Europe, with 4,000 staff and a turnover of more than €360m.

Developments underpinning this included:

Building a forward order book worth about £300m.
Acquiring Banyards in 2008 and Western Landscapes in 2010, strengthening the group’s presence regional presence.
Securing Olympic Park and Royal Parks contracts.
Changing the revenue mix of the business, concentrating on long term maintenance contracts and reducing the level of one off construction projects.