Nutral is now fully founder-owned, and we’re going after it

Alex Gosney and Ben Wardleworth have completed a management buyout of Nutral, backed by a seven-figure investment from NPIF II – NEL Debt Finance. The plan from here is growth across the UK and into Europe.

Nutral is now owned outright by the two people who started it. Alex Gosney, our chief executive, and Ben Wardleworth, our chief operating officer, have completed a management buyout funded by NPIF II – NEL Debt Finance, which NEL Fund Managers runs as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II.

For clients and agency partners, the day to day doesn’t change. The difference is that decisions about where we invest, and how quickly, now sit entirely with the people running the business.

Where we are

We set Nutral up in 2021 because the way the industry bought and managed agency labour wasn’t working for contractors or for the people doing the work on site. Since then the numbers have moved quickly. We now manage more than £416m of workforce spend and recently passed six million workforce hours, with over 500 projects coming on board in the last twelve months alone.

Alex said: “You don’t buy out a partner in the middle of a growth spurt without thinking hard about it, and the funding had to fit the way Nutral actually runs. NEL took the time to get under the skin of the business, and of me and Ben, and that made the difference.”

“The pipeline for the next twelve months is the strongest it’s ever been. Owning the business outright means we can move quicker and put the money where it does most good for clients and their supply chains. We’re going after it.”

What it means for clients and suppliers

Demand for what we do keeps climbing. Contractors are being asked to prove that the people on their sites are properly vetted and properly paid, and as labour gets tighter, the temptation for some in the supply chain to cut corners only grows. That’s the problem Nutral was built to fix.

Our model stays exactly as it is. We supply none of the labour ourselves, so there’s no conflict of interest; we sit between the client and its supply chain with Requidex and our own people, making sure workers get what they’re due and agencies earn a fair margin and get paid on time.

Growth means taking that model to more contractors and major projects here in the UK, and into Europe.

Thank you

Michael Williams, investment executive at NEL, described it as a complex deal that needed every party working together, and that’s fair. Our thanks go to Michael and the team at NEL, and to Ryecroft Glenton Corporate Finance and Wilkin Chapman Rollits, who advised us. Hay & Kilner and UNW, who advised NEL, helped keep things moving on the other side of the table.

Last, a big thank you to the Nutral team for keeping clients looked after while all of this was going on. Plenty more to come.

About NPIF II: the £660m Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II is run by the British Business Bank and offers smaller businesses across the North loans of £25,000 to £2m and equity investment of up to £5m.