Ready to scale? Buy-and-build offers opportunity

Broader reach; greater scale.

Stronger products and services; sharper competitive edge.

These are all goals likely featuring in North East firms’ 2026 growth plans as business confidence gradually returns and we see management teams increasingly combine organic and buy-and-build strategies to achieve their objectives faster and more efficiently.

At LDC, our teams provide specialist M&A advice to management teams across the UK to help navigate the process of acquiring and integrating new businesses.

Our partnership with Lomond, the UK’s leading network of sales and letting agents, is a great example of how impactful buy-and-build can be.

Lomond has broadened its regional footprint across the UK through a series of 65 acquisitions since 2020.

It is now a market-leading, multi-regional platform and one of the fastest growing estate agency networks in the UK, with around 70,000 properties under management.

Buy-and-build can also be transformative in terms of accessing new markets and regions.

For example, we first backed Gateshead-based Aspire Technology Solutions’ management team in 2022 to support the expansion of its UK footprint and its suite of services.

Since then, the business has acquired Glasgow-based managed service provider Cloud Cover IT and CloudCoCo, another managed service provider based in Leeds.

Scotland was one of Aspire’s key strategic markets.

By acquiring Cloud Cover IT, it immediately gained an established team and office in Glasgow, and in-market customer relationships that Cloud Cover had developed over the course of 11 years in operation.

Similarly, the acquisition of CloudCoCo added a new base for Aspire in Yorkshire and brought 300 new customers.

It also added further expertise in managed IT, cloud and unified communications.

We’ve helped our portfolio companies complete more than 80 acquisitions nationwide since 2024, working together to map out existing markets, explore new territories, review potential growth areas and identify targets.

While buy-and-build is relevant for companies of all sizes and most industries, there are several critical ingredients for success.

Every acquisition should have a clearly defined purpose and support the business’ wider vision of growth.

Management teams should also consider what happens post-deal, ensuring cultural fit, clear purpose and effective integration to create an organisation capable of transformative results.

Staying in the North East, we recently supported the merger of Connect Health – an NHS-focused provider of outsourced musculoskeletal services – with Healthshare – an independent healthcare provider – to form Cora Health.

With combined resources and complementary expertise and geographic coverage, Cora Health offers NHS integrated care boards greater capacity, innovation and integrated solutions across a broader range of services that drive better patient experience, clinical outcomes and value for money.

As we look towards 2026, buy-and-build continues to define UK growth strategies, driven by a need for scale, diversification and stronger market positioning.

Many ambitious North East businesses have a real opportunity to grow through acquisitive strategies, and the right support can help to deliver the best possible results.

Gareth Marshall is partner and head of North East and Scotland at private equity investor LDC

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