In 1993 Hugh co–led the £18 million acquisition and market listing of PizzaExpress. During the seven years he remained on the Board, the share price increased from 40p to over 800p, and annual losses of £0.5 million were turned into profits of £38 million.
In 1997 Hugh co–founded Punch Group. As Executive Chairman, he orchestrated the acquisition and integration of the Allied Domecq Retail estate, the Bass lease estate and Inn Business, as well as the disposal of 550 pubs to Bass. Punch Group was floated in 2002 with an enterprise value of £3.5 billion.
Hugh co–founded Pearl Group in 2005. Pearl was acquired for £1.1 billion from Henderson Plc and embedded value was subsequently grown to £2.3 billion. Resolution Plc was acquired in December 2007, and the enlarged group floated in September 2009.
Most recently Hugh co–founded and was a director of Horizon.
Matthew is a qualified Chartered Accountant and has been the Director of a range of companies, including PizzaExpress Plc (1993 - 2002), Liber Fabrica and Transacsys Plc.
Matthew co–founded Pearl Group and Punch Group, and acted as Pension Trustee of Punch's pension scheme. He founded and was Chairman of Integrated Dental Holdings Plc and as Chairman of First Quench, was responsible for its sale to Nomura for £240 million. Matthew has worked with the team since 1994.
Most recently Matthew co–founded Horizon.
Marc started his career as a corporate financier with Hambros Bank.
Marc co–founded Wellington Pub Company, where he served as director from 1997 to 2004. He also co–founded Punch Group where, as Property Director, he played a major part in the financing and integration of acquisitions and business rationalisation. Marc was Chairman of Punch Taverns, and continued to serve as non–executive director until 2004.
Marc led Sun Capital Partners' £465 million acquisition of the CenterParcs property portfolio from Deutsche Bank Capital in 2002. He also led the €2,200 million sale and leaseback of Santander's retail branch network in 2007.
Most recently Marc co–founded Horizon.
Edward started his career at Bain & Co as a management consultant, working on a range of assignments, latterly in their private advisory group.
Edward left Bain to join Sun Capital Partners in 1998, and has worked with a number of different companies both public and private, including Punch Group, Pearl Group and Capital Management & Investment Plc.
At Punch Edward was Group Commercial Director, responsible for supplier negotiations, corporate development, IT and regulatory. He established Punch Supply Co which resulted in approximately £60 million of purchasing savings per annum for Punch.
At Pearl Edward led the negotiations in the Business Process Outsourcing deal between Pearl Group and Tata Consultancy Services.
Most recently Edward co–founded Horizon.
Edward started his career at PwC, working on financial and commercial due diligence assignments. He left PwC in 2001 to join Sun Capital Partners, where he has been involved in a number of transactions.
As a co–founder and Executive Director of Pearl Edward played a major part in the initial acquisition, the financing, the follow on acquisition of Resolution Plc and the re–listing of Phoenix Group Plc.
Most recently Edward co–founded and was a director of Horizon and played an active role in the acquisition of APR Energy where he is now on the main Board.