Despite the impact of Covid on the events industry, over the last five years Full Circle has grown through strategic investments, while it also shored-up stock, preserved jobs, and strengthened its leadership team.
It said that with the UK exhibition market “now flourishing” the two businesses in the group were “poised to capitalise on new growth opportunities”.
The deal, which has been backed by two key investment partners – Panoramic Growth Equity and Shawbrook Bank – has seen a 12-strong MBO team take the reins of the business from founders Steve Barratt and Helenya Jones, who are leaving the company.
Full Circle managing director Steve Comar, who joined the business in 2021 and is now majority shareholder on the MBO team, told Printweek more about the deal that completed late on Thursday night (22 August).
He said: “We've been going through this transition for 24 to 36 months now. Coming back out of Covid, it was quite a challenging time for everyone. We were a bigger team back then from a strategic point of view but as we’ve gone through the years, Steve and Helenya have taken more and more of a backstep.
“And over the last 18 months, they virtually stepped out of the business to allow this process to be taken to where it was taken to on Thursday.”
He added: “When I came in, my job was to build the team, which is what we’ve done over the last four years, and build our marketplace, build our market share, and launch the MBO.
“Ideally it would have been a year ago but it took a little bit longer due to the pace of what we were doing. We’ve seen tremendous growth over the last three years; [full group turnover has] gone from £6.5m to £28m.”
Today the group delivers 125 events a year. It employs 126 staff, up from 28 in 2021. The group’s two companies have near-neighbouring sites in Salford totalling over 4,700sqm space, and with a further 929sqm extension set to be built; as well as a further 3,530sqm unit for manufacturing, warehousing, and storage north of Harrogate.
Founder Steve Barratt also commented: “It’s a surreal thing to be writing the quote you’ve been imagining for 30 years, but no matter what you try to plan, the reality will always surprise you.
“What I never expected was to be passing ownership to a leadership team that have the exact same ethos that Helenya and I talked about right from the very beginning.
“This means a lot to both of us. Full Circle has always been about the people – the events industry is, at its core, the people industry – and I’m thrilled to know that this foundational value will continue with such a well-loved and tightly-knit team.”
Comar further added: “Steve and Helenya are a dynamic double act and they’ve made a remarkable impact. Everybody knows how hard they’ve worked, from Steve’s pivotal role as the founding chair of ESSA, to the groundbreaking innovations they brought into the systems and regulations we all use today.
“They have a story to tell about everything and carry so much wisdom and industry history. We’ll be telling stories about them for decades and we are forever grateful to have this kind of heritage within the business.
“The company is firmly focused on bringing out the best in its teams, clients, and events, and channelling all of that distinctive Mancunian energy into supporting the industry we love.”
The sister company of Full Circle, wide-format events and exhibitions printer Psycho Peacock specialises in graphics for various sectors, including events and exhibitions, retail, museums, and construction among others.
It took on two 3.5m-wide Durst P5 350 roll-to-roll printers earlier this year to increase its capacity by up to six times. It also operates kit from Canon, Konica Minolta, and Zünd.
Comar told Printweek the Durst installation had been a “great success” and that the business is now on a hard sustainability push to maximise what it can do in all marketplaces.
“It's a very key objective for us and our clients to retain the highest marks in sustainability.
“Everything we do, we design sustainability into the design elements of it, knowing that we can control the output, which is great because we very rarely rely on any outside partners to help us deliver our services, so we're in complete control of that.”
