Caledonia to Invest in Conquip Engineering

Caledonia Investments PLC

04 August 2026

 

Caledonia Investments plc

CALEDONIA TO INVEST IN CONQUIP ENGINEERING

·    Caledonia has acquired a majority stake in Conquip Engineering Group Holding Company Limited ("Conquip" or "the Business"), which has a reputation for delivering best in class products and solutions to the infrastructure, utilities, energy and built environment sectors.

·    Conquip is a family-owned business led by brothers Daniel and George Critchley, who will continue to lead the company and will reinvest alongside Caledonia.

·    Caledonia's investment will support Conquip's next phase of growth through continued expansion of its rental fleet, the national rollout of its specialist shoring proposition and further product innovation.

Caledonia Investments plc ("Caledonia") is pleased to announce that it has invested £49.5 million to acquire a majority stake (61%) in Conquip and provide investment to support future growth.

Founded in 2003, Conquip has established its place in the market by supporting customers to increase productivity and efficiency and improve sustainability. The Business is trusted by customers on many complex projects through its nine regional locations. Employing approximately 250 people, Conquip serves a diversified customer base with predominant exposure to infrastructure and utilities sectors alongside housebuilding and the built environment.

The Business has established a strong reputation for customer-led innovation and the provision of safety-critical products and services that increase productivity.  Caledonia's investment will enable Conquip to continue to strengthen its position as a partner of choice for customers, supporting them through excellent service and best in class products and solutions.

Conquip's equipment rental activities and the recent acquisition of ProMech have further broadened its proposition, adding specialist engineering capabilities in more complex shoring applications. Combining this expertise with Conquip's national depot network, established customer relationships and trusted brand creates an opportunity to serve a broader range of customer requirements and expand the combined proposition nationally.

Caledonia will partner with management to support Conquip's continued development, including increasing penetration with existing customers, expanding geographic coverage, investing in the rental fleet, scaling its shoring proposition, developing new products and pursuing selective acquisitions.

Tom Leader, Head of Caledonia Private Capital, commented:

"Conquip is a high-quality and differentiated business with a strong management team, market-leading products and clear opportunities for continued growth. Its focus on safety, customer service and innovation has enabled it to create trusted, long-standing relationships across the UK construction industry.

We have developed a strong relationship with management and the wider team and look forward to supporting the growth and development of the Business."

Daniel Critchley, Chief Executive Officer of Conquip, commented:

"We are delighted to be working with Caledonia on the next stage of Conquip's development. Finding an investor that understands our culture and shares our ambitions was particularly important. Caledonia's long-term mindset, experience of supporting entrepreneurial businesses and collaborative approach made them a natural choice."

For further information contact:

Company contacts
Caledonia Investments plc	[phone]
Mat Masters Chief Executive Officer Rob Memmott Chief Financial Officer
Tom Leader Head of Private Capital
Media contacts
Teneo	[phone]
Tom Murray Robert Yates [e-mail]

4 August 2026

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Notes for editors:

Caledonia Investments plc

Caledonia is a FTSE 250 self-managed investment trust company with a long track record of delivering consistent returns and progressive annual dividend payments to shareholders.

Our aim is to generate long-term compounding real returns that outperform inflation by 3%-6% over the medium to long term, and the FTSE All-Share index over 10 years.

We are a long-term investor and hold investments in both listed and private markets across three pools: Public Companies, Private Capital and Funds. Each has a strategic allocation of capital, investment strategy and target return.

We buy to hold, investing in high quality companies with strong market positions and fundamentals, alongside investments in private equity funds with track records of success. The result is a well-balanced diversified portfolio of investments with a global reach.

In the Private Capital arena, Caledonia typically seeks to invest £50m to £150m in private companies, either on a majority or minority basis, where Caledonia provides enduring capital and support to investee company management teams over the longer term.  The Caledonia Private Capital portfolio includes AIR-serv Europe (a leading designer and manufacturer of air, vacuum and jet wash machines provided as turn-key solutions to fuel station forecourt operators), Cobehold (the holding company of Cobepa, a European unquoted investment house), Butcombe Group (an inns, restaurant and drinks business with a pub estate stretching from Southwest London to Bristol and the Channel Islands), Blue Diamond (the UK and Channel Islands' leading garden centre operator)  and Direct Tyre Management (the UK's leading independent provider of outsourced tyre management services to fleet operators).

For additional information on Caledonia Private Capital, please visit www.caledoniaprivatecapital.com and for Caledonia please visit www.caledonia.com.

Transaction

Caledonia's investment in Conquip was led by Theo Tizard, James Lander, Chris Hodges and Will Sym.

Stephenson Harwood (Malcolm MacDougall, Lucy Thorpe and Rajiv Kakkad) provided legal advice, CIL (Jon Whiteman and Tim Perera) provided commercial due diligence, Deloitte (Tim Haden, Matthew Crocker and Sam Ward) provided tax advice and Stifel (Phil McCreanor and Teodora Sabeva) provided corporate finance advice.

Clearwater Corporate Finance (Zack Goddard, Michael Loudon, Richard Clark, Declan Warwick, Harry Talks and Eva McBride) provided corporate finance advice to the vendors and legal advice was provided by Squires Patton Boggs (Paul Mann, James McKay, Louise Parker and Vicky Jew). Commercial due diligence was provided by LEK (Jeremy Wheatland, Tom Diplock and Jonathan Hillcoat) and financial and tax due diligence was provided by KPMG (Glynn Bellamy and Nadina Crossen).

 

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