Keoghs has served insurers, public sector and corporate organisations with claims-handling services for more than 40 years.

In 2012, we invested in the business for a minority 22.5 per cent shareholding. 

Investment to scale

During a seven-year partnership, LDC’s support enabled Keoghs to increase investment in its people, processes and technology infrastructure while also enabling strategic acquisitions to add complementary services and scale to its operation.

This included the acquisition of Hill Dickinson’s highly-regarded Insurance Business Group which saw 300 employees based across sites in Liverpool, London and Manchester transfer to Keoghs, the acquisition of the defendant insurance practice of Newcastle-based law firm Sintons and Caldwell Warner in Belfast.

The business also opened new offices to grow to a network of ten locations, and won a string of new contracts.

Keoghs increased its revenues by 70 per cent from £55million in FY12 to £93million in FY19, and grew employee numbers from 1,200 to 1,700.

Founded in 1977, Pure Cottages Group (formerly Lakelovers) is a property management and lettings agency specialising in premium holiday cottages in the Lake District and further afield across the UK.

The Windermere-based firm manages more than 1,500 holiday properties providing an end-to-end property management service that includes marketing, maintenance and bookings support, alongside bespoke legal, financial and regulatory advice, through its network of high-street branches.

Acquisition trail

Lakelovers secured the support of LDC in December 2017 when the firm supported a management buyout led by CEO Paul Liddell.

Paul has overseen the growth of Lakelovers since he acquired the business in 2000 and since then has successfully built a reputation for managing and letting premium holiday cottages in sought-after locations. Pure Cottages Group now accommodates thousands of new and repeat customers every year.

Commsworld is an Edinburgh-headquartered telecommunications and ISP provider, founded in 1994.

The company provides connectivity, cloud, security, unified comms, and IT infrastructure services to the public and private sectors. Key client relationships include Taylor Wimpey, Skyscanner and Edinburgh Airport.

Commsworld has 110 employees based across its offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Aberdeen.

Investing for growth

In December 2019 Commsworld’s management team led by Founder Ricky Nicol chose to partner with LDC.

LDC backed Piers Latimer and his team in a management buyout in 2018. Our 15-month partnership supported the organic growth and diversification of the business. The team continued to focus on customer experience and engagement and increasing the scale their largest flagship events across the world. Our partnership culminated in a sale to one of the world’s most prominent media organisations, Thomson Reuters.

FCBI delivers high-end conferences and exhibitions globally to a diverse range of sectors including energy, insurance, pharmaceuticals, transportation, travel, strategy and technology. It helps senior business professionals stay at the forefront of change in their industry through insight sharing and networking with peers.

A turning point

In August 2018, LDC backed a management buyout to support a plan to drive organic growth and expand into new markets.

LDC backed FCBI’s existing management team, led by CEO Piers Latimer, in a deal that marked an exit for its original founders.

During our 15-month partnership, the business focused on improving its customer experience and engagement and continued to increase the scale of its largest flagship events. These include eyeforpharma Barcelona, Petrochemical Update Downstream, EFT 3PL & Supply Chain Summit and Insurance Nexus Connected Claims.

Headquartered in Colne, Lancashire, ELE produces complex parts for turbine blades, vanes and compressor blades. It also supplies turbo-charger components to the automotive sector from its manufacturing plant in Trencin, Slovakia.

ELE’s clients include Rolls-Royce, Safran, Siemens, GE Avio, GE Power and MAN Diesel & Turbo.

Accelerating growth

We supported the secondary buyout of the firm in October 2019 to help the business accelerate its organic growth plans and invest in infrastructure to meet the increasing global demands for its products. Since LDC’s investment, ELE has increased revenues from £14 million to £25 million. In 2023, the business strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of Nick Eary as Business Development Director and Rebecca Shellard as CFO.

LDC is backing the current management team led by CEO David Stanley who succeeded Manesh Pandya, former CEO, in October 2023. David has been with the business for over seven years in his previous role as Finance Director.

2023 saw a period of significant investment in the business including relocating to a new, larger manufacturing facility at Lomeshaye Industrial Estate, Nelson, Lancashire.

The new manufacturing facility enables ELE to increase production capacity by 40% and provides room for further expansion that will enable it to increase capacity by a further 50% in the future.

The site also features photovoltaic solar panels enabling ELE to generate up to 37% of its own clean energy, electric vehicle charging points for all employees and a streamlined waste management system to increase recycling rates.

Headquartered in London, Instinctif Partners (Instinctif) is a corporate communications consultancy that partners with clients to help them, their companies, their employees and their brands achieve their true potential.

LDC invested in the business in 2019 to support growth across its offices through client-centred, integrated and innovative communications services.

In October 2024, Instinctif launched its ‘Change Index’, a report that aimed to better understand the way ‘change’ is perceived and responded to within UK business, politics, thought leadership and everyday life. The research, conducted between May and August 2024, engaged 200+ business leaders and 2k members of the general public.

During 2025, Excellera Advisory Group acquired Instinctif Partners MENA, global marketing consultancy TEAM LEWIS acquired the UK division of Instinctif, the South African business was acquired by its management team and relaunched as Narrate and Paritee, the fast-growing European advisory and communications group acquired Truth Consulting.

Mi Hub is the UK’s largest supplier of workwear solutions, trading internationally through their Dimensions, Affinity, Alexandra and Yaffy brands and the business has maintained a Royal Warrant for over two decades. Globally, over five million people go to work every day in uniforms provided by the Mi Hub group. 

In 2019, LDC backed the management buyout of the corporate apparel business of US-based Tailored Brands Inc (NYSE:TLRD) in a deal which valued the group at £50m.

We have backed the management team to realise its vision as the company embarks on the next stage of its growth strategy as a standalone business.

This includes investing in its service lines and infrastructure to accelerate organic growth at home and overseas and to explore complementary acquisitions to drive further international expansion.

Since LDC’s investment, key contracts with a number of large UK customers have been successfully renewed, with several new international contracts also secured.

Mi Hub has also continued to invest in IT and eProcurement to improve the end user experience and offer account efficiencies, allowing the business to further develop its digital footprint in the year since LDC backed the business.

Our Value Creation Partners have also supported the management team in defining and rolling-out a comprehensive marketplace strategy across multiple-markets, starting with the UK and rapidly expanding across the EU and beyond.

ESG Journey

With LDC’s support, Mi Hub has accelerated its plans and developed new initiatives to make
more improvements across key areas of its ESG performance. They have a dedicated ESG team to ensure its strategy continues to be cutting edge and industry leading.

Their ‘Mi ESG Hub’ allows users to explore MiHub’s ESG pillars and objectives and how the business has been doing to achieve these goals. The site also hosts their ‘ESG reports’ which are published every August, with a mid-year update published in January.

Key ESG Milestones

• ISO 14064-1 Verification for its Carbon Footprint – Mi Hub became the first in the industry to achieve ISO 14064-1, delivering accurate, activity-based carbon data to support customers’ net zero goals.
• Achilles Silver: Transparent Sustainable Supply – Mi Hub achieved a score of 89 with Achilles, a clear recognition of its commitment to meeting high industry standards in ESG, health and safety, cybersecurity, and financial performance.
• Awarded the prestigious EcoVadis Silver Medal, a recognised global standard for corporate social responsibility and sustainability performance and was named in the top 15% of apparel manufacturing companies.
• Received an Carbon Disclosure Rating of an B for Climate , C for Water Security and an A- rating in its Supplier Engagement Assessment. This shows that the company has made a meaningful commitment to managing its environmental impact, providing clear and actionable data regarding its carbon footprint and climate-related policies.
• Mi Hub has developed and implemented a robust carbon reduction plan supported by a Science-Based Targets (SBT). It has exceeded its near-term SBT, cutting Scope 1 & 2 emissions by 47.3% in 2025, 5 years ahead of its 2030 carbon reduction goal.
• The Group has become a Carbon Literate Organisation Bronze with their own bespoke training being rolled out across the Group.
• Developed a Circular Bi Design approach, using recycled and reusable materials, repurposing redundant stock, partnering with charitable recycling bodies and creating designs that remove unnecessary trims as well as a Packaging Strategy, resulting in the reduction of plastic and cardboard.

IWS Group provides essential products and services to the global warehousing, logistics and material handling sectors. Through its growing family of companies, IWS Group provides its customers with a one-stop solution to make their sites safer, more efficient and environmentally sustainable.

The Group has a global customer base across multiple channels including operators, contractors, system integrators and resellers.

Acquiring to scale across Europe

LDC made a significant minority investment in 2022 to support IWS Group’s acquisitive growth strategy. The company is looking to acquire complementary businesses that expand its range of specialist products and services and enhance its international footprint, particularly in Europe.

IWS Group is also investing in organic new product development, building on the strength and success of its innovative product brand portfolio, which includes racksack®, a market-leading range of space-saving waste sacks which gives businesses a simple and cost-effective solution to segregate waste and Rack Armour®, the original pallet racking upright protection guard.

Onecom is the UK’s leading business telephony and cloud communications provider, operating from regional offices across the UK.

The company currently manages nearly 100,000 business organisations, delivering IT services, communications and unified solutions across fixed line voice, connectivity, and managed cloud to some of the UK’s most dynamic companies. Its customers include Farrow & Ball, Thwaites, Celtic Manor, Laithwaite’s Wine, Yorkshire Building Society and 118 UK Ltd.

Recent awards include the Five9 EMEA Partner of the Year, for the second consecutive year in addition to being recognised as Vodafone Strategic Partner of the Year for the last thirteen years.

Onecom has its headquarters in Whiteley, Hampshire, and offices in Brighton, Bristol, Shoeburyness, Gloucester, Leeds, Gateshead, Glasgow, Telford, Belfast, Cardiff, and Exeter.

Supporting the team’s vision

In 2019 Onecom secured investment from LDC in a £100m deal to allow it to implement its strategy to grow through acquisition.

Onecom has since made 14 acquisitions, taking advantage of market opportunities to acquire scale, capability, and enhanced complementary product sets. The strategy has also helped Onecom to expand their routes to market across a broader customer base – including Enterprise, Business and SME customers.

As a result of this ambitious growth strategy, Onecom has more than doubled revenue and tripled its profitability since the investment, with around £180m of revenues and over £35m EBITDA.

Based in Berkshire, Amberjack’s mission is to enable a world in which people are hired and progressed on the basis of their future potential. 

Amberjack provides its specialist services and software solutions to many of the UK’s largest employers, with a focus on early-careers candidates, specifically graduates, school leavers and apprenticeship programmes.

The business uses proprietary cloud-based software tools to automate processes, manage application volumes and provide data driven insights to help assess and select candidates and provide a professional experience to candidates.

Its clients include major organisations such as Mars, Network Rail, PwC, EY, Virgin Media and Morrisons.

Backing the management team

In April 2019 we invested £17.6m in Amberjack to support a management buyout and accelerate the business’s growth strategy, which included providing capital to support investment in the software and technology propositions and to help the business explore complementary acquisitions to broaden its service offering.

The business’ innovative services and software now help over 300,000 people begin new careers every year.

In June 2023, Australia and New Zealand’s leading graduate outsource partner, Fusion Graduate Consultancy, joined the Amberjack Group. The development extends the business’ service offering to include Learning & Development and expands Amberjack’s international presence.

Prism Medical UK is the manufacturer and provider of specialist healthcare equipment in a range of care environments, including schools, hospitals and care homes. The business provides a full service that takes care of the design, installation and maintenance of its products.

It employs 450 people and has a diversified product portfolio of more than 180 products.

International acquisitive growth

In April 2014, LDC backed the management buyout of Prism to help drive growth at home and overseas. Working with CEO Stuart Meldrum and his management team, we helped the business to accelerate its buy and build strategy, increase exports and invest heavily in new product development.

This included the acquisition of four complementary businesses – HME, Smirthwaite, Mackworth and TMEC – which together strengthened Prism’s presence in the mobility and patient handling markets.

Headquartered in Warrington, Inprova offers outsourcing, technology and consultancy services, providing its clients with a complete procurement solutions package.

We backed the business in 2014 to help fuel its ambitious growth strategy. Over the subsequent four years we worked closely with CEO Paul Kennedy and his management team to truly transform the business into a multi-disciplinary group.

This included a buy and build strategy that saw Inprova acquire five complementary energy businesses and launch a bespoke division, Inprova Energy, in 2015. The move created one of the top ten business energy procurement and management consultancies in the UK.