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  • Status: Current
  • Date: May 2019
  • Sector:
    • Business & Technology Services
  • Buy & Build: 3

www.premierpark.co.uk

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Premier Park

Premier Park is a leading provider of car park management solutions. Sovereign is working with the management team to grow the business both organically and through strategic acquisition to meet the increasing demand for its services.

Investment Background

Premier Park was established in 2005 to meet the demand for automated and professional car park management solutions. The business grew to become a scaled parking operator with a national footprint and reputation for efficiency and outstanding customer service.

With the business at an attractive scale, the owners decided to partner with Sovereign to allow them to de-risk, source a highly experienced management team who could guide the business through its next phase of growth, undertake strategic acquisitions, and continue to hold an equity stake in the business. In May 2019, the Buy-in / Management buy-out of Premier Park was completed.

Value Creation

  • Augmented the management team at investment with the appointments of Paul Dawson, CEO, formerly with Capita plc where he held various senior management roles including CEO of Parking, and Andy Parker, non-executive Chairman, former Group CEO of Capita plc.
  • 3 strategic acquisitions

The Story So Far

Premier Park installs and manages Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras for its UK SME and corporate customers’ car parks to monitor usage, prevent abuse and ensure legitimate users have parking access. Other parking services include managing payments and patrol services.

In 2019 Premier Park acquired UK Car Park Management (UKCPM), one of the UK’s largest providers of car park management solutions and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) services to enterprise and SME customers. Like Premier, UKCPM installs and manages ANPR cameras and provides patrol services to monitor usage, prevent abuse and ensure legitimate users have parking access. This was followed by the acquisition of Stafford-based iView, a proprietary software business which provides ANPR processing capability to the wider parking sector. In autumn 2020, Park Watch also joined the Group.

Since being backed by Sovereign the Group has grown from operating c.840 to over 7,000 sites throughout the UK. Today Premier Park is an integrated and scaled car park management business delivering an end-to-end service with market leading proprietary technology and internal processing capabilities.

Sovereign continues to work with the management team to grow the business both organically and through strategic acquisition to meet the increasing demand for its services.


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In their own words

We operate in an evolving market where our clients are constantly looking for an improved service and greater demand on valuable data insights…. With Sovereign’s investment and help in identifying opportunities for strategic acquisition, and then supporting each deal process, we are well placed to further develop the Group, broadening our service proposition and continuing to deliver the efficiency, innovation and customer satisfaction this business is recognised for.

Paul Dawson / CEO / Premier Park