Our Acquisition Philosophy

Selling your life’s work is no simple task.

You’ve spent years mastering your craft, building close relationships with your customers and suppliers, and leading your loyal team through tough and prosperous periods. You’ve built a brand that people in your community trust and count on. We call this a Forever Business, and we’re looking to acquire them.

In return, we guarantee decision-making autonomy, whole-hearted support, and a seamless transaction.

The Forever Business

Asset Light Service Businesses in UK & France

We favour simple, durable business models - the type that you can easily explain to your kids.

We are looking for those that have enduring appeal and long-term stability, such as Professional Services, Engineering Services, Technical Services, and Industrial Services.

Demonstrable Niche Market Leadership

In order to hold businesses forever, we look for businesses that will stand the test of time, even in the age of AI.

If your business is a demonstrable niche market leader and has been around for 20+ years, we’d love to talk.

In our experience, a company’s durability and financial performance are just the output of how well it treats its customers, employees and suppliers.

We’re looking for the companies who’s stakeholders are their number one advocates, and who have the score card to prove it: excellent client relationships, loyal & happy employees, and supportive suppliers.

Businesses That Truly Care

We want to partner with like-minded minority owner-operators who are obsessed with the success of their business.

We offer a 24/7 sounding board that can help grow the remaining equity value, and a bespoke mid-to-long-term release mechanism so they can enjoy the fruits of their labour.

An Unrivalled Team, With Skin In The Game

We are not turnaround specialists nor venture investors. Instead, we are looking for tried & tested business models with strong value propositions that translate into profit streams.

A Track Record Of Profitability

£0.5m - £1.5m Of Operating Profit

Our capital base, conservative gearing mindset and majority ownership approach means we can look at businesses up to about £1.5m of underlying operating profit.

Your legacy, unchanged

We founded Arch Group to offer an alternative succession solution for those that take pride in what they’ve built.

Under Arch’s permanent ownership, we promise you the following: 

  1. Your business will stay just as it is today

  2. We will not flip your business in the future

  3. The current decision makers will keep their autonomy

  4. We will not impose demanding reporting requirements or integration workstreams

  5. Your business will not be pledged for excessive debt

  6. We are a 24/7 sounding board for whatever your decision makers need

  7. The people you interact with during the deal are all there is to Arch

We take these promises very seriously, and our ownership structure grants us the control to keep them.

The perfect transaction allows you and your managers to continue doing what you love, always.

Strength in partnership

We’re firm believers that a business’ long-term success is maximised by managers that think like owners.

We’re therefore looking to partner with management teams that retain a minority position in the business, which we will sustainably grow together. We can brainstorm a bespoke solution to release that equity value over the mid-to-long term, and implement an owner-aligned compensation package for the key decision makers to share the interim rewards.

Preserving what works, supporting what’s next

Throughout the years, we’ve seen outstanding entrepreneurs handling the day-to-day of SMEs flawlessly, but often leaving little time to think about the bigger picture. If desired, we would be happy to share our insights and network access with the managers to help steer the ship in the right direction.

We will leave the day-to-day decision making to the management team, and look to get involved in just three key areas:

  • Major investments or divestments – to make sure that big sums of money are being well spent 

  • Major business decisions – we trust management’s judgement, and just want to be made aware before major decisions are made 

  • Key person remuneration – they are the stewards of our capital in the business, and should be rewarded appropriately 

Honest partnerships, seamless transactions

We’ve built our savings and family capital on decades of honest, hard work, rooted in a pragmatic, down-to-earth mindset. We don’t play games, engage in process tactics to drive down prices, or disappear when things get tough. Instead, we promise quick decisions, clear communication, and a smooth, respectful process - no ghosting, no surprises. Our goal is simple: to provide a great home for your business while ensuring a fair and efficient transaction.

We believe Arch Group is the ideal partner for owners of small private businesses who want to work with humble, honest people.

Our process is designed to combine speed with diligence, minimizing disruptions to daily operations. We keep full control of our due diligence processes.