Investing strategy

The strategy is for the Northern Bear group to grow by acquiring more businesses based in North East England.

Northern Bear is aiming to acquire businesses that will complement and extend the range of building services and products already provided by the group. Ideally these will be mature, profitable businesses where the founder is nearing retirement and is ready to hand over to the immediate under-manager (who will have an excellent knowledge of the business and may already be in day-to-day control). The option of selling to Northern Bear has proved to be very appealing to such retiring owners since it combines the rare chance of receiving a lump sum with the opportunity for a share in an AIM-listed company which operates in an area they know well.

It is this strategy that successfully brought together the five trading businesses when Northern Bear was admitted to AIM in December 2006, and has already resulted in the acquisition of three more businesses in 2007.

One of the key objectives for Northern Bear is to make sure that the change in ownership from the private to the public domain does not disrupt the qualities and progress of the acquired businesses.