LEEDS-based Jennings Roofing has announced an expansion into the North West just 12 months after its acquisition by £50m turnover AIM-listed building services group Northern Bear.
The opening of Jennings Roofing Manchester, a sister business to the £10m turnover roofing business based in Leeds, brings the total number of operating businesses within the Northern Bear group to 13.
The new operation will replace the firm's sa
tellite office established last year to test the North West regional market.
The new company's order book of North West roofing contracts including work for local authorities and housing associations will see turnover exceed £2m in its first year.
Jennings Roofing Ltd, which operated the Leeds business, was acquired by Northern Bear in November 2007. Following that acquisition, Graham Jennings, the former managing director, became operations director for Northern Bear.
He said: "We are delighted to be opening our latest business in the North West which we see a key market for the entire Northern Bear offering.
"It is our intention to search for similar opportunities for other Northern Bear businesses that can be built around existing customer relations within a geographic region. Organic growth is particularly important for Northern Bear in the current economic climate."
He said that like many of the firms in the Northern Bear group, Jennings has increased its public sector revenues through work with local authorities via the Decent Homes programme, which aims to bring all socially-owned houses up to agreed Government standards by 2010.
Steve Roberts of BTG McInnes Corporate Finance, key advisers to Northern Bear on its growth and acquisition strategy, added: "Northern bear has gone a very long way since flotation just two years ago, and this real foothold in the North West market illustrates the firm's serious intent to become a significant player in this lucrative region."
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