On 9th August it was announced that NZB’s parent – Premier Modular Group – has attracted another investor, MML Capital Partners.
MML has taken an equal, majority stake holding with incumbent investor, Cabot Square Capital. This financial development will further accelerate the whole Premier Modular Group’s ambitions so that it continues to deliver best-in-class service to its whole customer-base including NZB’s.
Premier Modular Group acquired NZB back in 2021 as part of the Cabot Square Capital deal to reinforce its sustainability ambitions and enable the business to bolt-on the provision of high performing panelised solutions to its client base.
Premier is the first non-financial company in Europe to gain ESG accreditation and is set to be carbon zero by 2035.
For some years now, Premier Modular has also enjoyed the accolade of being the UK’s leading, premium, customised, modular rental, leasing and permanent buildings solutions provider.
With NZB offering a new dimension in the brand portfolio, Premier Modular now delivers space to meet the specific needs of various users supporting UK and northern European infrastructure sectors namely: schools, hospitals, defence, justice, laboratories, life science, welfare buildings, offices, data centres and other commercial applications including retail.
This leading position has translated into many years of significant growth. Premier’s rental fleet has grown – circa 50% in the last four years – culminating in another record year for the business. MML’s new investment will now further fuel Premier Modular’s ambitions to make world-class facilities more widely available in its domestic and European markets.
Investor, Cabot Square Capital acquired Premier Modular in 2021 and has seen a robust return on its investment, driven by turnover growth from both public and private sectors.
“Premier Modular is already a well-run company, as seen in the great performance in recent years,” says Andrew Honan, managing partner (infrastructure) at MML. “But it’s Premier Modular’s long-term growth that we are really excited about. Fundamentally, we are seeing a big societal change in how we build our infrastructure in the UK and globally – a focus on being closer to the user and dealing with shorter term changes in societal needs. In that context, Premier is at the vanguard of enabling this change in sustainable and affordable ways.”
Keith Maddin, partner, Cabot Square Capital said: “Premier is a highly successful business and has built a first-class track record of providing sustainable infrastructure solutions. Working with the Premier Modular team for two years now, it’s their culture of delivering excellence in tight timeframes which keeps them competitive. That’s playing its part in the company’s expansion both at home and in Europe with the launch of Premier Modular BV. We look forward to continuing to be involved in the next stage of its growth alongside management and MML Capital Partners.”
Modular construction is seen as the future of building because it solves several challenges the traditional building industry is facing regarding sustainability, skills shortages, safety and building quality. These factors are even more important for clients who have temporary space needs as opposed to the 60-year plus lifetime of our permanent modular solutions or indeed traditional construction.
“There has been ample demonstration over the last 30 years that manufacturing a building using lean techniques, with precision, in a factory and then transporting it to site, makes for a higher quality building. That also translates to more sustainable buildings because they’re designed and built using a more efficient, faster and safer process compared with how traditional building sites operate. We now understand the true benefits of modular manufacture and rental within the circular economy, demonstrating that offsite manufacture is a more sustainable construction methodology,” says David Harris, Premier Modular Group’s CEO.
Few modern methods of construction organisations are on a par with Premier Modular’s capability to operate at scale and at a pace which accelerates year on year. Even fewer companies combine Premier’s strength on its balance sheet, its technical expertise with such a substantial rental fleet. True to its roots, all Premier’s sustainability claims regards the manufacture and operation of the buildings it builds, are verified or verifiable.
“Our state-of-the-art factories – which allow us to respond to each customer’s particular needs – sustain our new business pipeline. However, without doubt, it’s our people who make this business what it is,” says David Harris. “One of the reasons why we’re able to continue our strong growth is because we anticipated the skilled trades market tightening, so we invested in our apprenticeship and training programmes. Many people prefer to invest in their skills with the long-term prospect of working close-to-home rather than away on building sites.
“MML’s investment means we now continue to grow our best-in-class fleet, expand the range of funding structures we offer our clients, and accelerate our expansion into Europe following client demand,” says David Harris. “The combination of financial firepower and infrastructure expertise will be invaluable as we continue to drive Premier forward.
“But what’s particularly satisfying is that we’re continually questioning and innovating to make small changes to the way we design and build because those small changes can have the biggest impacts for generations to come,” said David Harris.
