Leaning on external expertise and building in-house talent has created a leader in the making in the Testing, Inspection, Certification and Compliance (TICC) segment.

From a standing start just over a year ago, Celnor has grown into a group comprising 19 companies all serving the TICC sectors across a variety of industries and geographies. It was launched to create a UK leader by consolidating a highly fragmented market, and has focused on strategic acquisitions and partnerships offering stability to small business owners. Today the business comprises four fast-growing areas: Life Sciences, Build Environment, Safety & Compliance and Risk Management.

In September alone Celnor added two to its group: Veriflo is a specialist provider of asset verification, inspection, and validation services to the water infrastructure sector while Arbtech is an ecology consultancy which has added 20% to Celnor’s EBITDA, highlighting the ability of Celnor to attract ever-larger businesses.

Celnor’s rapid success is down to its people’s experience and vision. Simon Parrington founded Celnor in 2023 after spotting a gap in his previous role. He’d acquired seven businesses during his time at Cawood Scientific, a testing business, but spoke with over 100. “There are a lot of small business owners looking to be part of something bigger, with the benefits and security of being part of a large group but without being fully controlled and owned by someone else,” he explains.

Simon brings to Celnor his valuable experience as Group CEO of Cawood for three years, while Celnor NED Nigel Patrick has a long career in the testing and analysis industry, including 12 years at Cawood across three generations of ownership.

It’s who you know

Cawood had been backed by Inflexion prior to Simon’s joining, and left a positive impression, with Nigel’s direct relationship inspiring Simon to speak with them.

“Inflexion’s dedicated funds for different stages of our journey were a big attraction, and once I got to know the Inflexion team I saw the strong backbone of resource they could offer,” explains Simon.

The investor also brings experience in precisely the sector Simon is focused on. In addition to Cawood Inflexion had backed Phenna Group (23 acquisitions tripling headcount in an 18-month partnership), Alcumus (nine acquisitions expanding the offering and international footprint) and BES Group (15 acquisitions broadening the product reach).

Simon’s vision needed funding and expertise to support its ambitions, with three businesses brought together at the outset to create a platform and an additional 15 added in the time since.  Today the business generates roughly 5% of its revenues from its life sciences vertical, and the other three areas evenly split.

Achieving this cadence requires substantial resource and Celnor has built up a team experienced in acquisitive growth. “Inflexion’s brand helps us to attract the best talent, with people joining our M&A team from listed companies as well as large accountancies,” Simon says. Inflexion itself complements the in-house team, bringing its network and experience in supporting over 500 acquisitions to the table.

Simon attributes the latest acquisition to Inflexion’s network, with the sell-side vendor bringing it to the team in Manchester.

The firm is very helpful, particularly with bigger deals. We were in a competitive process for this latest acquisition and the rapport I built up with management was backed up by the premium brand of Inflexion.

Simon Parrington, Founder, Celnor 

He respects their reputation and experience, admitting it gives real weight to their input. “Inflexion encourages healthy dialogue around our ideas, and it’s meant we’ve put our pens down on some. It’s our job to show them the opportunities, and their role to be a genuine sounding board.”

Looking ahead

The team has a full pipeline to take them into next year, and expect to maintain their pace of M&A. Pipeline conversion should remain strong given the collaborative nature of Simon and his team, which allows member companies to maintain the autonomy and local culture that has made each business. Celnor has made significant investment in training and development for over 300 colleagues in line management roles”.

What may look different is the size of businesses they acquire. “As we build a quality group of businesses, we are seeing the size of companies we are attracting starting to increase,” he says, noting that the recent acquisitions are adding more substantially to profit levels.

“Our success is driven by our model as well as the support of Inflexion, whose sector expertise and substantial buy-and-build experience make them the right investor for us,” Simon says.