Godalming, Surrey (16th January 2020), Arrow is pleased to announce the completion of a strategic investment from funds advised by MML Capital Partners LLP (“MML”).
This follows the highly succesful partnership with Growth Capital Partners (“GCP”), a UK SME private equity firm. GCP’s investment in Arrow enabled the business to complete eight acquisitions, nearly triple earnings and double the employee base whilst adding significant further scale and expertise in cloud telephony, energy and IT services in just three years.
MML is now investing in Arrow to support the next phase of growth and transformation. With a new investment partner and the significant funding firepower of a new £50m acquisition facility, Arrow will progress its ambitious growth plans as a leading buy and build platform in the ICT and energy services markets. At the same time, the company will continue to expand its product range and technical capabilities to meet market needs.
Richard Burke, who joined Arrow in 2017 will step up to CEO enabling Chris Russell to take on the role of Chairman of Arrow. Chris will focus on building relationships and steering the company towards achieving its strategic goals and acquisition plans whilst Richard will embrace the operational leadership of the business.
Chris Russell, Chairman of Arrow, said: “I am immensely proud of what we have achieved as a team over the last three years, maintaining industry leading employee engagement scores and a remarkable culture whilst experiencing continuous growth. I am excited about the next stage of our journey and the recent acquisition of BTL Communications on 19th December gives us a great start to 2020.
Richard Shaw, Partner at GCP, said, “Arrow has a unique culture and exceptional focus on delivery and it has been a pleasure to be in partnership with Chris, Richard and the wider team and to support them in achieving their ambitious growth plans. The investments made in people, systems and a national office infrastructure, together with the eight acquisitions we have completed means Arrow is ideally placed for significant further growth as a fully integrated platform of scale. We wish the team and their new investors the very best of future success.”
Luke Jones, Partner at MML said, “We are delighted to be partnering with Arrow in its next phase of growth. Arrow’s market leading customer service and unique product portfolio provides a differentiated offering for its customers, which is supported by its exceptional company culture. Chris, Richard and the rest of the team have delivered strong growth and we are backing them to do more of the same”.
Advisers:
Funder – GCP: Richard Shaw, James Blake, James Handley, Liam Bennett
Vendor CF – Arma Partners: Andrew Wheatley, Tom Wells, David Smith, Samer Sweidan, Felix Ng
GCP Legal – Dickson Minto: Michelle McCabe, John Pentland, Michael Terry
Management Legal - Kemp Little: Deborah Angel, Charles Claisse, Patrick Roux
Vendor FDD – EY: Derek Smith, Rajan Goel, Michael Hall, David McHugh
Vendor CDD – OC&C: Chris Woodland, Mohsin Saleh, Michael Connolly
For more information, please contact:
Catherine Ingram, Head of Marketing
Tel: 0330 135 5393
Email: catherine.ingram@arrowcommunications.co.uk
Web: www.arrowcommunications.co.uk
About Arrow
Arrow specialises in telephony, data, IT and energy solutions for businesses. It offers a diverse product range including hosted telephony and mobiles through to mobile device management, telephone systems, IT services, voice and data connectivity. The addition of business energy, including gas, electricity and water services, to the portfolio makes Arrow one of very few companies in the UK able to provide a full range of Telecoms, IT and Energy solutions.
Arrow has nine offices, annual sales of over £51 million and 245 staff supporting a diverse range of businesses from entrepreneurs to national, multi-site organisations. Many of its customers purchase multiple products and services, choosing Arrow as their telecoms partner year after year. Learn more about the types of customers we support and the solutions we have implemented here.
Over the years, Arrow has kept pace with technology, working with ‘best of breed’ providers in order to explore, define and tailor market-leading solutions for businesses. Arrow has a number of strategic partnerships in place across the Telecoms and IT marketplace.
