IT/Aerospace
2016: No.8= - £550m
2015: No.6 - £550m

Profits are on the rise at Sir Peter Rigby’s Rigby Group. The company is seeing success and investment across its six core sectors of technology, airports, hotels, real estate, aviation and financial services.

In the year to March 2015 the Rigby Group posted revenues of £1.62 billion. That’s slightly down on the previous year but pre-tax profits rose form £9.6 million to £15.9 million.

Revenues for SCC, the technology arm of the Rigby Group fell by 13 per cent despite the earlier acquisition of SSE Telecom’s flagship Hampshire Data Centre in a deal worth around £12 million.

But Peter Rigby’s hotels group, under the Eden Hotel Collection brand, grew by 52 per cent following the acquisition of Bovey Castle on Dartmoor. The a luxury hotel chain also includes Brockencote Hall in Worcestershire and the Victorian mansion at Chaddesley Corbett near Kidderminster, the Michelin-starred Mallory Court Hotel near Leamington, the upmarket and exclusive Kings Hotel in Chipping Campden, the Arden Hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon and Buckland Tout-Saints in Kingsbridge, Devon. The hotel group expanded in December with the acquisition of the Caterham House Hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon in a joint venture with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The group owns Coventry airport as well as Exeter International Airport and the operation of Blackpool and Derry airports. Airport revenues were up 58 per cent to £34.3 million. Plans have been approved to turn former passenger facilities at Coventry Airport into a new manufacturing and distribution hub, potentially creating 600 jobs. Peter Rigby’s property investment division, Ostrava Properties will build up to 650,000 sq ft of storage, distribution and industrial space.

This comes after a much bigger project – the Coventry Gateway, backed by Coventry and Warwick councils and the Local Enterprise Partnership, was thrown out by Government as being too big an intrusion on the green belt.

Technology Division SCC is benefitting from increased demand for cloud services. The division’s investment in data centres has topped more than £50 million. It’s a strategy which is paying off. UK data centre and cloud revenues for SCC have grown by nearly 70 per cent, with contracts with Gist Aggregate Industries, BOC, IBM, Oxford Council, the CAA and the Highways Agency, adding £50 million in contract value to the Tyseley-headquartered firm which employs more than 6,000 people.

SCC’s National Service Centre provides a fully-branded National Trust service desk, providing IT support for the Trust’s employees and its 360 properties across the UK. In 2014 SCC also acquired M2 Digital which provides managed print services to business. The acquisition of the Manchester-based firm was worth around £30 million.

SCC is Europe’s largest privately-owned technology group and is benefitting from business wins from Kier, Samworth Brothers, McDonald Hotels, United Utilities and WH Smith as well as the Department for Work and Pensions.

The a luxury hotel chain also includes Brockencote Hall in Worcestershire and the Victorian mansion at Chaddesley Corbett near Kidderminster, the Michelin-starred Mallory Court Hotel near Leamington, the upmarket and exclusive Kings Hotel in Chipping Campden, the Arden Hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon and Buckland Tout-Saints in Kingsbridge, Devon.

Liverpool-born Sir Peter, aged 72, founded SCH in 1975 with just £2,000 in cash. Sir Peter’s sons James and Steven are both senior directors, with James running the firm’s high-performing UK division and Steven the chief operating officer of the Rigby Group.

A qualified fixed wing and helicopter pilot, Sir Peter’s aviation group is based in Gloucester and Cranfield. As well as airports, it operates flying schools, charter operations and helicopter maintenance, indulging Sir Peter’s passion for all mechanical things that fly.

Sir Peter devotes much of his time and money to charity. The Rigby Foundation Charitable Trust supports child related causes and children’s hospices. Sir Peter was knighted in the Queens Jubilee Honours for his contribution to information technology and business.