As Acme grew, its support operations expanded way beyond its original boundaries of Blackburn. In 2015, Acme supported businesses across large parts of the UK. It’s stronghold of Lancashire, Yorkshire & Cheshire had expanded further into the North-east & Scotland, as well as down into the Midlands, but an area that we’d always struggled to grow into was Southern England.

The real challenge had not been finding work, but finding engineers. Recruitment was slow and it was always a catch 22 situation – we’d be offered a large contract that included the south, but we couldn’t recruit engineers fast enough to service it. That’s why we gave ourselves a kick-start with the acquisition of Severn Catering Services. Based in Gloucester, Severn Catering specialised in catering equipment maintenance throughout the midlands and southern England. They had strong engineering coverage across the region and the business complimented Acme perfectly. So the deal was done – Severn Catering joined the Acme family in 2015 and gave Acme the platform to become a truly nationwide service company.

Since then, we have gone on to expand our southern operations and taken on fully nationwide contracts, including Rontec Service Stations, Mecure Hotels, Jurys Inn, Priory Healthcare and many others.