North Holdings Group is a privately held holding company headquartered in the City of London. We own and develop businesses that provide essential services to industrial customers across northern Europe.
How we work
We are long-term owners. Our operating companies are run by their own management teams, with capital, treasury and governance provided at group level. We do not buy businesses in order to restructure them for resale: the average holding period across the portfolio is now nineteen years.
The group was founded in 1998 by three engineers who had spent their careers in plant maintenance. That inheritance still shapes how we assess an acquisition. We look for unglamorous businesses with recurring revenue, competent management and a defensible position in a local market, and we are comfortable walking away from anything we do not understand.
Reliability is a business model. Our customers do not buy novelty from us; they buy the certainty that the plant will still be running next Tuesday.
Eleanor Ashcombe, Group Chief Executive
Where we operate
Group companies work from 34 sites in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Our registered office is at 8 Waterhouse Court, London EC2N 4BQ, where the group’s finance, legal and communications functions are based.
United Kingdom
Group headquarters in London, maintenance depots in Immingham, Teesside and Grangemouth, and freight terminals at Tilbury. Around 1,700 people.
Continental Europe
Operations in Rotterdam, Duisburg, Antwerp and Esbjerg, serving the Dutch, German, Belgian and Danish markets. Around 700 people.
Governance and reporting
North Holdings Group is a signatory to the UN Global Compact and publishes an annual sustainability report covering emissions, safety performance and workforce development across the portfolio. The group is not listed and does not seek external equity. The board includes three independent non-executive directors and meets six times a year.