OCS plucks Fountains from administrators

24 January 2012

OCS Group UK has bought part of grounds maintenance and street cleaning group Fountains from the administrators.

The businesses include Fountains Environmental, Fountains Limited, Fountains Forestry and Fountains Support Services.

More than 1,500 jobs have been saved, but some redundancies have been made, according to administrators BDO.

“This is a clear demonstration of our intention to further develop our strong position as a leading player in the UK FM market,” said Martin Gammon, managing director of OCS Group UK.

“By adding the Fountains brand and customer base to OCS, we will broaden our horticulture service offering to customers, while facilitating synergy with existing clients.”

Services provided by the companies include grounds maintenance, street cleaning, landscaping, arboriculture and waste management, as well as forestry and land management.

Fountains’ customers will continue to receive the same service from the same staff, said a statement from OCS.

All employees engaged on the contracts acquired will be entitled to transfer to OCS Group UK in accordance with The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006.

Fountains is “one the largest privately-owned facilities management companies in the world, with 56,000 employees and an unrivalled track record in the provision of support services”, the OCS statement said.

The company was founded in 1957 as a forestry management firm and grew over the years to become a diversified environmental services group, with contracts in the US.

UK contracts have included waste management, fly-tipping enforcement and vegetation clearing with local authorities. With utilities companies, Fountains is involved in clearing land along power lines and around energy generating stations.

In 2009, Fountains was bought for £13 million by the ill-fated social housing provider Connaught, and it became Connaught Environmental, with revenue of around £50 million.

The future of Fountains hung in the balance after Connaught went into administration in September 2010. Kier, the construction and support services, was initially interested.

Fountains/Connaught Environmental continued to trade until it was bought in March last year by a group of financial institutions, including the Royal Bank of Scotland and Alchemy Partners.

A statement from administrators BDO said Fountains employed more than 2,000 staff and some redundancies were unavoidable. “1,570 Fountains Group employees will transfer to OCS Group as part of their purchase of the business, but regrettably, it has been necessary to make 446 employees redundant,” the statement said.
 
"A sale of Fountains Group was the best option to secure the future of the business, which has been exposed to the difficult economic climate,” said Tony Nygate, BDO business restructuring partner. “Today’s announcement enables the business to move forward confidently and on a secure financial footing.”