Belowground Contracts Ltd

Groundworks specialist Alistair Garden has taken a big step towards his retirement with the help of KBS Corporate – whilst remaining actively involved in the business he founded.

Alistair set up Belowground Contracts Ltd in 2006, building a company that performs high-quality piling construction, underpinning and construction services for commercial and domestic projects across the south of England and Wales.

With its head office located in Exeter, Belowground has worked with high-profile clients in the private and public sectors, including Co-Op, BMW, Next, Network Rail and the NHS, and the company has also featured on TV programmes such as Homes Under The Hammer, Grand Designs and The Restoration Man.

Having turned 50, Alistair decided the time had come to think ahead towards his retirement and enlisted the help of KBS Corporate to find a buyer for Belowground.

After researching a broad range of potential acquirers in the trade and private equity brackets, KBS identified Canadian company GoliathTech Piles as the right fit for Belowground and a seven-figure sale, overseen by deal executive Charles Needham, was completed.

Not only does the transaction help greatly with Alistair’s retirement plans but he is staying on with Belowground in an Operations Director role for the next three years and potentially longer, as the company integrates the practices which have made GoliathTech so successful in their field.

“They are already very well established in Canada and the United States with more than 150 franchisees and are now branching out into the UK and France,” explained Alistair.

“GoliathTech manufacture and franchise piling equipment, so Belowground is changing to a new format of adopting solely one technique.

“When I first started looking into selling the company, I never imagined there would be interest from overseas.”

Being a new experience for Alistair, the sale was completed to his satisfaction.

“The process was very good overall,” he said. “Everyone at KBS was very helpful, they all got on board and were proactive. I was very pleased when the sale went through.”

KBS Corporate deal executive Charles Needham added: “GoliathTech have gained more UK presence through a horizontal acquisition. “Alistair and I had a great relationship throughout the deal and it was nice to see a successful sale be completed.”