The sale, to M Group Services, delivers a money multiple return of 3.4x and an IRR of 40% on Evergreen’s original investment.

AgilityEco is a home decarbonisation delivery platform with a strong social and environmental purpose. It provides whole-of-house energy efficiency solutions to some of the most vulnerable low-income households in the UK, offering independent advice, nationwide installation capabilities, reliable delivery and quality outcomes. To achieve this, AgilityEco partners with energy companies, local authorities, social housing providers, private social enterprises, utility companies and a broad network of dedicated installers.

Bridges Evergreen is the UK’s first long-term, impact-focussed equity fund and invested in AgilityEco in 2019. Since then, AgilityEco’s revenues have grown in lockstep with its social and environmental impact outcomes. Turnover has increased more than threefold to well over £100m and the number of employees has doubled.

AgilityEco worked with over 36,000 households in 2022/23, delivering energy efficiency measures that will save over £2,600 for each home on their lifetime energy bills. Those measures will also save over 113,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Evergreen has worked closely with the Board and the wider management team to embed impact best practice within the business, which has been recognised in the form of numerous industry awards and the business’ achievement of B Corp status.  Evergreen also worked with the Board to design and implement an employee share ownership scheme which means that around two-thirds of the company’s employees are also shareholders and have shared in the financial success of this sale transaction.

In 2021, Evergreen recruited Sharon Johnson to lead AgilityEco as CEO. The business now has an experienced, ambitious and highly regarded management team who are ideally placed to deliver on AgilityEco’s enormous future growth potential.

Tom Biddle, Partner at Bridges and Head of Bridges Evergreen, said:

“AgilityEco is exactly the type of business that Evergreen wants to partner with. It exists to tackle two of the greatest challenges facing the UK today: decarbonising our housing stock and lifting people out of fuel poverty. It is a fantastic example of the Just Transition in action.

“AgilityEco has also been a blueprint for Evergreen’s strategy of providing patient capital to support growing, highly impactful businesses to scale their outcomes and deliver attractive commercial returns. This sale transaction is a significant milestone for Evergreen and our investors. We are very proud to have been shareholders in the business and to have supported Sharon, Shueb, Anthony and the team to deliver such phenomenal growth.

“We wish the business, its team and its new owner every success in the future.”

Sharon Johnson, CEO of AgilityEco, said:

“We would like to thank Tom, Luke and the Bridges Evergreen team for their role in the development of AgilityEco into the diversified, national energy efficiency services platform that it is today. Our mission is to play a major role in eliminating fuel poverty and to help towards net zero. Evergreen’s investment has been key to accelerating our progress towards achieving that.

Evergreen has provided strategic support and investment, as well as bringing invaluable experience of scaling businesses which are taking institutional capital for the first time and supporting successful founder transitions. The combination of that support, together with Bridges’ market-leading impact expertise, has really facilitated AgilityEco’s growth and success.”

The Bridges Evergreen team consisted of Tom Biddle, Luke Edwards, Olivia Prentice and James Hicks.

The shareholders’ corporate finance advisors on the transaction were Arrowpoint Advisory. CMS acted as legal advisors and Baringa and KPMG provided vendor due diligence services. Management was advised by Liberty and CMS.

B Corporations are businesses that achieve the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. To certify as a B Corp, businesses have to undergo the B Impact Assessment (administered by the independent not-for-profit B Lab) which measures their positive impact across five stakeholder groups: Customers, Communities, Workers, Governance and the Environment. Those that achieve a high enough score in this assessment will then enshrine their commitment to positive impact in their company articles. Critically, B Corps are re-assessed every few years, to make sure they are delivering on their commitments.

For Bridges, the B Corp philosophy chimed perfectly with our own view that business and investment have a vital role to play in building a more sustainable and inclusive economy. So we have long been a supporter of the movement; and when it came to the UK in 2015, Bridges was one of the founding UK B Corps (there are now over 1,000 certified B Corps in the UK). Since then, we have been selected multiple times as a ‘Best for the World’ B Corp, which honours those that score in the top 5% of B Corps globally within certain categories. And our latest overall B Impact score of 145.4 also puts us in the top 1.5% of all B Corps globally.

The B Impact Assessment has also become one of our most important portfolio management tools, helping us to benchmark new investments and identify impact and value creation opportunities. That has led to a number of our portfolio companies certifying as B Corps in their own right.

We believe the B Corp movement can play an important role in holding business to higher standards of social and environmental performance – by recognising, amplifying and propagating best practice. So we’re keen to support its continued growth through initiatives like the B Finance UK coalition; launched at COP 26 in Glasgow, its aim is to embolden other financial institutions to be more transparent and accountable on climate action.

Latitude Blue is a significant residential-led regeneration scheme in Leeds which will be delivered by Realstar’s residential rental brand UNCLE.

Comprising 488 highly sustainable, lower-cost build-to-rent (BTR) homes, this is the second Leeds development from Bridges, HUB and Realstar; a forward funding deal was agreed on Latitude Purple, the adjacent site, in 2021. Together, Latitude Blue and Latitude Purple will make a significant contribution to the regeneration of this exciting area of Leeds by delivering 951 homes across both sites.

This latest deal is the fourth between Bridges, HUB and Realstar, which also count two north London BTR developments as well as the two sites in Leeds – Wembley Link (currently under construction) and UNCLE Wembley (which opened in May 2020). In total, the three-way partnership has now completed £370m of forward funding deals, with 1,446 homes either completed or under construction.

Located less than ten minutes’ walk from Leeds railway station, Latitude Blue includes extensive new public realm, taking advantage of the nearby canal as well as enhancing pedestrian and bicycle access to the city centre.

Simon Ringer, Partner and Head of Property Funds at Bridges Fund Management, said: “Our latest forward-funding partnership with Realstar is further evidence of the strong institutional demand for high-quality, highly sustainable residential assets. Latitude Blue will perfectly complement our existing scheme in Leeds, addressing the clear local demand for quality lower-cost housing and creating attractive public realm that will benefit the whole community.”

Damien Sharkey, Managing Director at HUB, said: “We are thrilled to have secured forward funding for our second development in Leeds, continuing our longstanding partnership with Realstar. This deal is testament to the quality of the scheme, and to HUB’s strong track record. Work has already started on site, and we look forward to delivering a scheme that will continue the transformation of this exciting area of Leeds, providing attainable homes for local people, as well as fantastic new public realm. The BTR sector is continuing to prove its resilience in turbulent times, and we are feeling optimistic about 2023, with further deals coming forward over the next few months.”

Ryan Prince, Vice Chairman of Realstar and Founder of UNCLE, said: “In the last 10 years we have continued to see demand for high quality rentals increase. Uncle is committed to creating neighbourhoods that benefit our residents and the local areas around them. Our newest Uncle Leeds does just that, bringing beautiful design, innovative common areas and great resident managers to an exciting area of Leeds.”

The Bridges Property Funds have acquired a 12,069 sq. ft site in Ludgate Hill, in the City of London, at a very attractive entry price for such a prime City location. We’re investing alongside HubCap, a new HUB subsidiary that will focus on low-carbon, city centre co-living and aparthotel projects.

We’ll be applying for planning consent to retro-fit the current building – which is currently a partially vacant office – into a highly sustainable aparthotel, aimed at London’s sizeable short-stay tourist market.

“Globally, the existing building stock accounts for a huge proportion of carbon emissions,” says Simon Ringer, Partner and Head of the Bridges Property Funds. “So we’ve always been interested in finding ways to retro-fit under-used buildings to make them more sustainable and economically useful.

“Through our various projects together, Bridges and HUB are on course to deliver more than 3,000 lower-cost and affordable homes in London, Edinburgh and Leeds, with a total value of over £1bn. So we’re excited to be able to work together again on another exciting area of the residential market – short-stay living – in a way that we hope will allow us to draw on our long experience of sustainable development and low-carbon design.”

Located by York Street and Frederick Street, the new student housing development will sit north of Belfast City Centre, on a site which previously housed retail and office buildings but is currently in a state of disrepair.

We’ve received planning permission to develop 307 bedrooms across eleven floors, enabling us to address the pressing demand for purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) in Belfast. The city is home to almost 38,500 students – but around 80% of this total do not have access to PBSA.

We’re aiming for the accommodation to be ready for students in time for the 2024/2025 academic year.

Guy Bowden, Partner at Bridges Fund Management, said: “Belfast is a big student city, but there’s a real lack of high-quality purpose-built student accommodation. Our new development in partnership with ROK will help to address this under-supply, building on Bridges’ extensive experience of delivering highly sustainable lower-cost residential accommodation in other major UK cities like Leeds, Edinburgh and London.”

Shaun Crawley at ROK Property added, “We are delighted to have partnered with Bridges Fund Management to deliver this high quality PBSA development in a prime location. The project, which is adjacent to the much-anticipated Ulster University Campus, will support the very significant demand for student accommodation in the city centre and ensure a positive future for this part of Belfast.  We look forward to seeing these exciting plans move forward later this year and anticipate welcoming students in 2024.”

‘City Fields’, as the scheme will be branded, recently saw previous owner Keyland Developments submit a planning application proposing employment space of up to 500,000 sq ft. Regenerating the site is an opportunity to generate over 800 new jobs and catalyse local economic growth.

Demand for UK urban logistics facilities was 86% above the long-term annual average in 2021, with vacancy rates falling sharply. City Fields’ urban logistics provision (Class B2, B8 and E(g) consent) and varied industrial accommodation will cater to a clear need for this type of real estate – crucially incorporating important sustainability features. Proposals also offer development scope for a trade counter scheme and hospitality options.

Previously part of the redundant Yorkshire Water Calder Vale treatment works, the site will now form a key strategic element of the overall City Fields development, which, at 375 acres, will play a significant role in creating a new, important and sustainable primary employment hub to the east of Wakefield. It runs adjacent to the £33m Wakefield Eastern Relief Road, opened in 2017, and will be part of the regeneration of the broader City Fields community.

We’re looking forward to working alongside Opus North to deliver another successful project!

Bridges partner Guy Bowden said: “The City Fields development will allow us to revitalise a previously redundant site and create over 800 new jobs for the surrounding area. Aiming to incorporate important sustainable features into the design, this development will both benefit occupiers and provide the wider Wakefield community with a high-quality commercial and industrial hub, helping to catalyse local economic growth.”

Ryan Unsworth, Development Director of Opus North, added: “The acquisition of this strategic site continues our strategy of sustained growth in the northern commercial sector. The surrounding area has witnessed a considerable surge in investment and regeneration and the development of this pivotal site will make a further significant economic contribution. We are looking to commence works on site in early 2023 with a targeted completion of the first units later that year. In addition to bringing about new jobs, the development will help ease the well documented shortages of high quality industrial/commercial accommodation in the region.”

Storetec, based in Hull, provides outsourced document scanning, archive storage and cloud-based document management solutions to businesses in both the public and private sectors, including NHS Trusts, councils, FTSE 100 companies, professional services firms and SMEs. This enables organisations to protect their most sensitive data and build more sustainable digital workflows.

With so much of our daily lives now powered by technology – a trend accelerated by the rise of remote and digital working post-Covid – data security has become a significant ESG issue. According to the World Economic Forum, cybersecurity is now one of the five key risks facing businesses globally: more than 80% of UK companies have experienced a successful cyber-attack in the last year. This is creating strong demand for services that can help companies digitise and secure their critical data: the electronic data storage market is forecast to grow at about 15% in the coming years.

Storetec works with over 400 organisations each year. Over the last decade, it has digitised over 333m paper records: FreeDocs, its proprietary digital platform, now stores over 8,000GB of data. The company has multiple gold standard accreditations and has won numerous awards for the quality and security of its services, including Business of the Year (for its digitisation business) and Records Management Product of the Year (for FreeDocs) at the Document Management Awards. For customers, Storetec’s services enable improved data protection, regulatory compliance and archives access, and – by supporting their digitisation journey – lower carbon emissions via reduced paper consumption.

Bridges’ investment (via its Sustainable Growth Funds) will see it working in partnership with the existing management team, led by founder & CEO Neil Robson, to accelerate the growth of the business and support more clients in the U.K. and beyond. This will include embedding best-in-class impact management practices throughout the business to build an impact-led exemplar in the ESG services sector, with data security at its core.

Neil Robson, CEO at Storetec said:
“We’re excited to be partnering with Bridges at this critical stage of the business’s growth journey. We wanted an investor who understood our market, shared our values, and had a strong track record of helping businesses like ours to harness their growth and impact potential. Bridges fitted the bill perfectly.”

Simon Braham, partner at Bridges, said:
“In the last few years, the digitisation trend has accelerated rapidly. Protecting sensitive corporate and personal information has to be a priority for every organisation. We identified Storetec as a best-in-class operator in this sector, and we believe it has a really compelling market opportunity. We’re looking forward to partnering with Neil and the team to help accelerate Storetec’s growth and establish it as an ESG champion in the sector – drawing on our extensive experience of impact-driven value creation.”

Demand for high-quality assisted living accommodation in the UK is rising, given the country’s ageing population and the limited availability of retirement living options.

Bridges launched Birchgrove in 2017 to provide senior people with an accessible rental model that enables them to maintain independence and enjoy the benefits of a community – without the burden of property ownership. Birchgrove apartments also include on-site care support and leisure facilities for residents.

M&G has described this as “the first phase of a long-term partnership that could deliver more than £200 million of purpose-built communities over the next five years”. The Birchgrove team will continue to operate the Sidcup and Woking sites via a management fee arrangement, while M&G is also keen to acquire future Birchgrove sites. We currently have four in development: in Ewell (which is due to open this year), Banstead, Godalming and Leatherhead.

In total, these six sites will provide over 300 units of care accommodation for the ill and elderly. They will also be built to exacting environmental standards: our first site in Sidcup achieved an EPC rating of ‘A’, and has been designed to reduce CO2 emissions in operation by >35% vs. a standard new-build property.

Honor Barratt, Managing Director, Birchgrove, said: “In Bridges Fund Management, Birchgrove has always had a partner who believes wholeheartedly in the value of achieving better outcomes for our residents and for the planet.

“We’re delighted to be entering into this long-term partnership with M&G, which will allow us to move forward on an even stronger, more sustainable footing. That will not only benefit Birchgrove’s existing residents; it will also enable us to build and operate more beautiful homes and communities for those of us who want to join our quiet rental revolution.”

This new investment represents a successful exit for the Bridges Sustainable Growth Funds, which initially invested in Wholebake in 2014. In partnership with management, the Bridges team has helped to build Wholebake into the UK’s leading manufacturer of healthy gluten-free snacking products.

In the last few years, the Bridges team has supported management to expand production facilities, optimise processes to improve productivity, increase product diversification and secure long-term contracts with third parties. In addition to growing its own brands (Brynmor, Nine and Bounce), Wholebake has also established itself as the premier snack bar co-manufacturing partner to companies like Natural Balance Foods (owner of Nakd and Trek brands) and leading supermarkets like Tesco, Morrisons and M&S. All told, this has enabled the company to triple revenues since 2014.

Wholebake also contributes positively to its community, having established itself as an important local employer. During our ownership, the number of employees has more than doubled to over 230 people, and it has focused on building a high-quality work environment, which has reduced attrition rates to well below industry averages. It has also actively supported a number of charitable initiatives in its local community. In recognition of this commitment – and its focus on healthier snacking – the company was certified as a B Corporation earlier this year. 

We continue to believe that Wholebake has huge growth potential – so as part of the deal, we have secured the option to re-invest alongside Elysian. Hopefully this means the business can continue to draw on Bridges’ value creation and impact management expertise as it embarks upon its next exciting growth phase.

Peter Unsworth, Wholebake chairman, said:
“For the last 30 years Wholebake has worked closely with its brand partners to create great tasting and healthy snacks, and firmly established itself as a major employer in the local community. Simon [Faithfull, CEO] and I are proud to have played our part in that journey over the last 3 years and we would like to thank Bridges Fund Management for their support during our time here. We now look forward to the next chapter in the Wholebake story with our new partners Elysian Capital.”

Bridges created The Vet in 2013 (in partnership with founder/CPO Jane Baldwin), recognising that while the number of pet owners was growing steadily, many were finding it hard to access quality veterinary services. Our goal was to create a differentiated proposition in the sector by offering accessible care in a bespoke, high-quality clinical environment, particularly within lower-income areas.

Today, the Vet operates eight large clinics across the UK, offering a comprehensive range of leading pet health services at competitive prices. With Bridges’ support, the business has continued to innovate and disrupt the market. For instance, during the pandemic, it was one of the first veterinary groups to offer an app-based telehealth service, giving customers access to care through the pandemic, while also being two-thirds cheaper than a face-to-face consultation. Indeed, over the last three years, the proportion of its customers who had never previously been to a vet averaged over 40 per cent – underlining our original impact thesis.

With more than 3.2 million households in the UK having acquired new pets since the start of the pandemic, this is market that will continue to grow – and we’re confident that The Vet will be able to continue providing high-quality, affordable care to even more pets under its new owners.

The sale of The Vet represents the third exit in as many months for our Sustainable Growth Funds, following on from the sale of World of Books to Livingbridge in June, and the sale of Wholebake to Elysian Capital in July. Collectively the three businesses have created about £170 million of enterprise value during Bridges’ period of ownership.

Chris Jessop, Chairman at The Vet, said:
“Since 2013, The Vet has established itself as one of the most exciting veterinary platforms in the UK. Its differentiated services delivered from state-of-the-art centres across the UK, coupled with industry-leading digital engagement capabilities, has resulted in an exceptionally strong commercial performance over recent years. Now as part of the CVS Group, the business will be able to keep up its strong momentum and make an even wider range of services available to pet owners. The Vet leadership team is very grateful to Bridges, who have been an outstanding partner for the business. Their highly engaged and supportive approach, coupled with their extensive experience of roll-out strategies, has been instrumental in helping us to drive strong organic growth. They have throughout shared our clear commitment to delivering accessible high-quality veterinary care. As Chair, I cannot speak more highly of them and the way we have worked together.”

Working with progressive organisations, Talking Talent focuses on retention and career progression of under-represented employees, including women, ethnically diverse groups and working parents. Over 80% of employees have observed or experienced some kind of bias at work, and around a quarter are made to feel uncomfortable in their work environment. Regrettably over half of minority ethnic and sociocultural group members believe that they are treated very differently at work, excluded or consistently feel anxious because of their identity¹.

Talking Talent’s systemic coaching programmes help to empower individuals and leaders to co-create inclusive cultures at the team and organisation levels, which leads to greater engagement, improved productivity, and better performance. Their programmes have achieved a five-times greater than average promotion rate for women at Lloyds Banking Group, seen 42% of participants at Siemens promoted in under a year after attending, and saved EY £16.6m in attrition costs after coaching parents through leave and return.

Since its inception in 2005, Talking Talent has grown rapidly by helping its clients to accelerate advancement for under-represented talent. Today, the business has operations in UK, US, and Asia, and employs over 60 people, supporting clients such as PwC, Boeing, Siemens and Unilever.

The Diversity, Equality & Inclusion (DEI) services market is worth about £3.5bn and is growing rapidly (over 20% p/a), driven by the broader societal trend towards equity and greater inclusivity. Bridges will work closely with Talking Talent’s management team to accelerate the business’s growth by enabling it to further broaden and deepen its consultancy capabilities and expand its market-leading digital platform, so it can help more organisations around the world meet their goals, faster.

Chris Parke, Co-Founder and CEO of Talking Talent, said:
“We are delighted to partner with Bridges for the next phase of Talking Talent’s growth. Their philosophy – that business can play a vital role in solving some of our most pressing social and environmental challenges – is one that Jo and I strongly share. Their support will enable us to develop our platform and support more clients across more geographies, furthering our mission to create a more inclusive world where people and business can thrive. We are very proud of the growth Talking Talent has achieved over the past decade, and we believe that this partnership with Bridges sets us up for a very exciting future.”

Emma Thorne, Investment Director at Bridges Fund Management, said:
“Talking Talent is a great example of a business that has identified a growth opportunity by addressing a clear societal need: to build more diverse and inclusive workplaces. Talking Talent has been a pioneer in this market, and continues to stand apart from competitors due to the quality of its coaches, its purpose-driven culture, its digital innovation, and its systemic approach, which really support long-term organisational change as well as improving the lives of individuals. We are excited to partner with Chris, Jo, Teresa and their brilliant team, and to support them in the next phase of Talking Talent’s growth journey.”

This is the third investment made by the Bridges Sustainable Growth Funds this year, following our earlier investments into Matrix Telematics, a fleet telematics and software provider that supports greener, safer driving; and Nkuku, one of the UK’s leading ethical homeware brands. Bridges Sustainable Growth Funds also completed three successful exits over the summer: The Vet, Wholebake and World of Books.

¹ Kantar, The Inclusion Index

Photo by Leon on Unsplash

This conviction has shaped all of the intensive work we have done with our partners since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis.

Across the portfolio, our partners (with support from the Bridges team) have been finding innovative new solutions to protect their people, adapt their business or service models, and support those hardest-hit by the crisis.

Some have expanded their existing services to help the most vulnerable. Some are utilising spare capacity to provide time, expertise or resources to organisations on the front-line of the crisis. And some have been busy raising philanthropic funding to help their local community. Here are just a few of our favourite examples:

Adapting to support those in need

Although most of the schools served by Impact Food Group have (largely) closed down, the business has still been extremely active in supporting its local communities – by converting canteens into mini-markets for key workers (an innovation that may persist), by providing lunches to other local schools and children who are eligible for free school meals, and by supplying food to front-line NHS staff. These measures will help IFG to stand apart from its competitors and build important new relationships locally.

Similarly, our Single Homeless Prevention Service in London has also expanded its remit since the Government committed to freezing evictions and moving all rough sleepers into temporary accommodation for the duration of the lockdown. SHPS has been working with these very vulnerable individuals to support their transition into long-term accommodation, as well as helping them them access benefits and other services.

West London Zone has launched a ‘Bridging the Gap’ fundraising appeal to raise extra funds so it can support local families that are being hardest-hit by the crisis. It is aiming to raise £35,000, which it intends to use to help parents/carers support their children through the challenges ahead. This could mean providing food or other basic goods, or supplying technology and other resources to support online learning, or even offering language support to help them better understand their options. West London Zone has almost reached its target already, but it’s not too late to donate if you would like to: just click HERE.

Kirklees Better Outcomes Partnership, a community support service for vulnerable people in West Yorkshire, has launched a dedicated Covid-19 service to offer support to those who would not have been referred into the service otherwise. Mobilised within a few days of the lockdown and drawing on the resources of all nine of our delivery partners, this service provides ongoing advice and emergency support (like food parcels), while also providing central coordination for services like foodbanks that rely on volunteers. By providing this service to the Local Authority, we are cementing our ongoing partnership while also driving better outcomes for some of the people most at risk from the virus.