Insider Media Limited

Contract cleaning provider Regent has diversified into the security services market with the acquisition of Leicester-based Premier Security Services. Regent, headquartered in Coventry, is owned by French parent company Samsic.

Premier, which turns over £3.5m a year, specialises in tailored security services for commercial and retail clients.

The purchase marks Coventry-based Regent’s entry into the security market. The company said it would draw on experience of the service model established within its cleaning business and from the security market knowledge of its parent company, Samsic.

Samsic, France’s largest cleaning contractor, has an annual turnover of €1bn.

The operating structure of Premier Security Services will be unchanged by the acquisition, and the company will continue to be managed by directors Andrew Hallam and Gary Sheffield.

Regent’s joint managing director, Jonathan King, said: “We are very pleased to have Premier Security Services joining us under the stewardship of Andrew and Gary and look forward to progressing our mutual aims for business development in an exciting and challenging marketplace.

“Security is a natural service development for Regent. We are already proven in successful skills management within a wide range of commercial and public sector environments, an increasing number of whose owners are realising new benefit in sourcing services with complementary needs such as security from a key existing partner.”

The sum of the purchase was not disclosed.