Our portfolio

In September 2004 funds managed by Albion realised their holding in Active Hotels for a consideration of £10.4 million receivable in cash representing a 10x return.

Funds managed by Albion invested £4.2 million to acquire Applecroft, a 75 bed residential care home for the elderly, in July 2003. Applecroft is located in Dover, Kent. The investment was sold in April 2006 at a significant profit.

Funds managed by Albion invested a total of £3.1 million in the company in a two year period from July 2002. The investment was used to acquire the technology and set up the production of Pinzgauer all-terrain vehicles in the UK. Following the award of several important military contracts, the company was sold in April 2005 to Stewart & Stevenson and is now part of BAE Systems.

Barleycroft Care Home developed a purpose built elderly care home for 80 residents in Romford, Greater London. The investment was exited in April 2006. 

The Bold Pub Company and its portfolio of 30 freehold properties was sold to leisure operator Calco Midlands in 2007. 

Bravo Inns owns and operate 40 public houses based in the North of England. The focus is on acquiring tired community pubs which are then extensively refurbished.

Broadoaks VCT built and operated a 30 bedroom purpose-built home for residents with learning disabilities in March, Cambridgeshire. The company was successfully sold in March 2004.

Employing a buy and build strategy, Careforce rapidly became a leading national provider of home care services. The company floated on AIM, which allowed the Albion funds to realise a significant part of their investment while continuing as a major shareholder. In 2007 the company was acquired by Mears Group Plc.

Cassium Technologies was a provider of IT services predominantly to telco operators. The company grew organically and by acquisitions and was acquired by Netstore Plc in 2005.

Churchcroft VCT built and operated a 34 bedroom purpose-built home for residents with learning disabilities in Witham, Essex. The company was successfully sold in March 2004.

Albion initially invested £1.2 million alongside City Screen Limited, the UK's leading art-house cinema operator, to develop the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse in 1999 and subsequently invested further funds to develop the Picturehouse at FACT in Liverpool in 2002, the Greenwich Picturehouse in 2004, The Ritzy in Brixton and the Exeter Picturehouse in 2005 and Cinema City in Norwich in 2007, with additional funds invested in 2009 to enable the cinemas to become fully digital.

In total Albion invested approximately £8.6 million and received total proceeds including loan stock interest, loan stock repayments and other payments over the course of the investment of over £22 million, a return of approximately 2.6x.

Cluster Seven is an enterprise software company that provides secure auditing and management of spreadsheets and user-developed applications.

ComOps is a software company quoted on the ASX which provides effective Workforce Management Solutions to the retail, logistics and healthcare sectors amongst others.

Compass Supply Solutions offers drinks logistics services to the air, cruise and rail industries.

Albion first invested in Dexela in May 2006. Dexela had developed technology to optimise the use of low-dose X-rays for 3-Dimensional imaging, focused initially on the detection of breast cancer. At the time the Company had low revenues and 6 employees.

Following investment Dexela built and trialled its proprietary X-Ray imaging system. It also developed a portfolio of software modules for imaging reconstruction and visualisation. Further investment in 2008 allowed the company to acquire a detector company, enabling the development of its own range of flat-panel CMOS-based digital detectors, optimised for use in low-dose X-Ray applications. Following launch in 2009, these detectors quickly became market leading, leading to rapid, profitable growth. The Company was sold to Perkin Elmer, a US-based global healthcare technology company, in June 2011. Albion invested £2.6 million in the Company.

Albion sold Dexela in June 2008. 

Dolphin Nurseries is building a group of private children’s day nurseries in the south-east and London. The holding was sold in 2004.

Earnside Energy operates a food waste to energy anaerobic digestion and composting plant near Perth in Scotland. 

Non-conventional machining for industrial gas turbines for power and aerospace sectors and turbochargers for the automotive sector

Evolutions is a full service post production house providing a complete range of video, audio, grading and dvd services.

Fastrack Resources handles the recruitment of temporary staff in the rail sector. Albion sold Fastrack Resources in January 2003. 

December 2009 funds managed by Albion realised their holding in Geronimo Inns VCT realising a total return of over £2m in just 18 months.

Hawkwell VCT owned and operated the Hawkwell House hotel in Oxford. The hotel was extended and refurbished and the company was successfully sold in October 2002.

Hilson Moran provides consultancy in building services, sustainability, facilities management and other services and is firmly established as a leading service engineer to commercial office, retail, leisure, hotel and residential projects. Completed projects include “The Gherkin”, Wembley Arena and the Olympic Village at Stratford. The company employs more than 250 staff based in London, Manchester, Farnborough, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. Albion Capital sold its stake in Hilson Moran to Tyrens generating a 3x return and 43% IRR

House of Dorchester, a premium chocolatier was acquired by Charbonel et Walker in 2014.

Innovation Broking is an independent commercial insurance broker providing corporate insurance broking services for companies and organisations seeking board level advice.

In 2007 AVL engineered a profitable exit to a secondary MBO.

Odyssey Glory Mill developed and operated the Odyssey Glory Mill health and fitness club near Beaconsfield. The company was successfully sold in December 2004.

Opta Sportsdata is a leading European provider of sports data and analysis. Opta uses proprietary technology to collect and analyses statistical data for a range of sports. 

Albion backed Opta from February 2008. In total the funds had invested approximately £2.1 million over three rounds of funding. As a result of the sale, funds managed by Albion have generated a return of over three times their investment.

In 2010 Albion invested £6.5m in Orchard Portman to acquire a nursing home and constructed a 23 bed psychiatric care hospital as an extension to the existing building. The sale of Orchard Portman will result in the creation of one single psychiatric care hospital with a total of 46 beds, renamed Cygnet Hospital Taunton. 

Premier VCT (Bristol) owned and operated the Holiday Inn Express near Bristol Templemeads station. The company was successfully sold in September 2002.

Premier VCT (Dartford) built and operated the Holiday Inn Express near Dartford bridge. It was initally built as an 80 bedroom hotel and then extended to 120 bedrooms. The company was successfully sold in November 2000.

Premier VCT (Mailbox) owned the long leasehold interest in and operated the 90 bedroom Ramada hotel in the Mailbox in Birmingham. It originally opened as a Days Inn before becoming a Days Hotel and was later rebadged as a Ramada hotel. Albion sold Premier VCT (Mailbox) in 2007. 

Prime Care operates on the South Coast of England, providing home care services to elderly and disabled clients. The company has won a number of presigeous awards for the quality of care it delivers.

PSCA International operates an information portal for the public sector in the United Kingdom. The company also publishes various print and online publications related to public service events and public sector recruitment and provides data services. In 2008 AVL achieved a profitable exit to a secondary MBO.

Exit: We sold Q Gardens for an undisclosed sum in December 2016.

Red-M is an expert wireless consultancy and systems integrator, enabling organisations to fully realise the benefits of wireless systems by providing insight into the opportunities and challenges of current and future wireless technologies and creating mission critical wireless networks. Red-M’s capabilities span all wireless technologies which it applies across a wide range of blue-chip customers and locations including shopping centres, stadia, railway stations and hospitals. Red-M also provide Network Services which offer a suite of last mile and building to building radio based Ethernet connectivity solutions. Red-M was sold to Team Telecom Group in 2012.

Silent Herdsman, a developer of neck-collar monitoring system for dairy cows was acquired by Afimilk Limited, an Israeli based, global provider of dairy farm management solutions in 2016.

Founded in 1998, Sparesfinder provides data solutions to international enterprises with significant inventory management needs, including parts management and data cleansing, across multiple locations and multiple IT systems. 

Clients include world leaders in the petrochemical, tobacco and mining industries.

Tender Loving Childcare operates purpose built nurseries predominantly positioned on NHS hospital sites. The company operates an innovative business model enabling it to provide a high quality environment while minimising the cost of development of each nursery. The investment was sold to Learning Care Group in 2008.

The Bear Hungerford Limited owns and operates the 41 bedroom Bear Hotel in Hungerford. Albion sold The Bear Hungerford in March 2013. 

The Charnwood Pub Company owned and operated 10 public houses in central England. All have now been sold. 

The Crown Hotel in the centre of Harrogate is a 115 bedroom hotel with extensive conference and banqueting facilities which has been restored to its former glory. Albion exited the Crown Hotel in August 2017

The Place Sandwich owned and operated the 37 bedroom Bell Hotel in Sandwich. Following extensive refurbishment and revival of the hotel's trading, the company was sold to Shepherd Neame in September 2011.

The Printworks Health Club & Spa was acquired by SDI Property in 2015. 

The Stanwell Hotel is located near Heathrow Terminal 5 and has been extended and refurbished to create a 52 bedroom boutique hotel.

The Weybridge Club is set in 30 acres of Surrey countryside between Weybridge and Walton. Members can indulge in a luxury spa therapy, relax by the swimming pool or work away any stress in our fully equipped gym.

Albion invested in The Weybridge Club in April 2005. Albion sold The Weybridge Club in June 2017. 

Thebigword provides translation and localisation services worldwide. Using innovative technologies, the company has become one of the fastest growing businesses in its industry.

Tower Bridge Health & Fitness Club was acquired by Third Space in 2014. The sale generated an attractive return for the Albion funds and the founders. 

The company provides learning technology solutions to schools in the UK and Australia. Albion exited its investment in September 2015. 

Provider of software for ne.ar-patient immunoassay testing applications. Acquired by Novartis.

Workshare, a leading provider of document collaboration software was acquired by Skydox, backed by Scottish Equity Partners and The Business Growth Fund in 2013.