Strategy & platform
Three horizons. One direction.
The Group's growth strategy operates across three horizons: optimise the existing business; build the subsidiary stack; acquire complementary platforms.
7.1 · Horizon 1 — optimise Gemini AMPM
Short-term priority is sustaining the return to the FY25 run-rate and pushing margin discipline across the divisional book:
- Hold the H1 corrective actions — tightened application cycles, repriced Tier-1 supply-chain work, leaner overhead
- Scale the profitable divisions — Small Works (25% GP), Service (improving), Gas & Water (18%)
- Continue to be selective on Special Projects, taking only work that carries adequate margin at contract stage
- Maintain weekly Board cash and contract-margin oversight as standing practice
7.2 · Horizon 2 — build the subsidiary stack
Four subsidiaries are in development or planning:
| Subsidiary | Launch | Thesis |
|---|---|---|
| AMPM Building Services | FY26 | Absorb M&E scope currently procured from third parties. Immediate margin improvement through vertical integration of labour and materials. |
| AMPM Facilities | FY27 | Full FM aggregation offering. Single-contact service delivery covering hard services (Gemini and Building Services) and soft services (via subcontract partnerships). |
| AMPM Live | FY26 development FY27 client release |
Client portal — see Section 08. |
| AMPM Academy | FY27 | Training and apprenticeship entity — see Section 09. |
7.3 · Horizon 3 — inorganic growth via AMPM Ventures
Acquisition is the primary driver of the step-change to £25–30 million. AMPM Ventures is the designated vehicle, governed separately from the trading entities to maintain clean financial reporting lines.
Acquisition criteria
- Revenue: £1–5 million — digestible integration risk
- Sector: fire safety, passive fire, M&E, FM, water hygiene and treatment, air quality and LEV testing, lifts and access, or adjacent compliance
- Geography: south of England initially, then national
- Margin: 15%+ gross, or with identifiable route to that level post-integration
- Accreditations: preference for businesses bringing new accreditation scope
Acqui-hire is the Group's highest-returning capital deployment strategy. Rather than acquiring a business and all its associated risk, the Group recruits proven senior operators — individuals with established client books, sector credibility and active order pipelines — and brings them directly into the AMPM Group structure. The operator arrives with their relationships; the Group provides the infrastructure, accreditation stack, back-office and platform to let them grow.
The mechanics
- Salary at or slightly above market rate. The operator joins on competitive terms. This is not a distressed hire; it is a deliberate recruitment of market-proven talent who choose AMPM Group because of the platform and growth opportunity on offer.
- Deferred signing bonus. A meaningful joining bonus is agreed at the point of hire but held back until the operator is established and generating revenue within the Group — typically 12 to 18 months. The deferred structure serves two purposes: it confirms the operator's commitment beyond the initial transition period, and it ensures the bonus is funded by the revenue the operator has themselves created. The Group is not paying capital until value has been evidenced.
- Client book transition. The operator brings their existing client relationships into the Group. These are personal relationships built over years — they follow the operator, not the employer. The Group immediately gains access to an active order pipeline and client base that would take years to win organically, or would cost 3–5× EBITDA to acquire through a business purchase.
- Internal P&L accountability. Each acqui-hire operator runs their business within the Group as a defined revenue and profit centre. They have the autonomy of an entrepreneur, the credibility of a Group accreditation stack, and the commercial backing of AMPM's infrastructure. This model attracts senior individuals who want to grow but no longer want the full weight of running their own business independently.
Why this is the most capital-efficient route to revenue growth
- A full business acquisition in this sector typically costs 3–5× EBITDA, carries due-diligence and legal costs, and requires integration resource to preserve client relationships post-deal.
- An acqui-hire achieves the same outcome — a client book, active revenue, and a proven operator — at a fraction of the cost.
- The total outlay is salary, infrastructure support, and a deferred bonus paid only after the operator has generated the revenue to justify it.
- The return on capital deployed is substantially higher, and the execution risk substantially lower.
The Group has identified a pipeline of senior candidates — individuals already known to management, with existing client relationships in target sectors and geographies — for whom this model is the right next step. Initial conversations have taken place. Candidate profiles and indicative revenue potential are available under enhanced NDA.
Target: 2–4 acqui-hire completions in Years 1–2, representing an estimated additional £1.5–3m of annualised revenue at Group-standard margins.
7.4 · Service expansion disciplines
The Group's existing Gemini operations provide a direct bridge into three high-value adjacent compliance disciplines. Each one deepens the single-contact compliance proposition, widens the AMPM Facilities offering, and adds measurable service breadth for exit positioning.
Water hygiene and treatment
Gemini's Gas & Water division already delivers water hygiene and legionella control — the regulatory foundation of full water compliance. The step into water treatment, chemical effluent and closed-system analysis is a matter of specialist technical depth, not a strategic pivot. HSL Compliance has built a £77 million revenue platform with water as its primary service line, demonstrating the market scale available to a credentialled operator. Expansion can be delivered via acqui-hire of a specialist water-treatment operator, or a targeted bolt-on acquisition of a sub-£3 million water-compliance business — either route adding a new compliance revenue stream to clients already buying fire and life-safety services from the Group.
Air quality and LEV testing
Gemini's Ventilation division operates in the same physical environments — commercial kitchens, plant rooms, occupied commercial spaces — where air-quality compliance work sits. Air-quality compliance (LEV testing, indoor air-quality monitoring, occupational hygiene) is a regulated, recurring service with near-identical client profiles to fire and water. The division provides the operational infrastructure; what is needed is specialist technical resource — an acqui-hire of one or two experienced LEV or air-quality engineers would activate this capability without acquisition cost.
Lifts and access
andwis Group operates four companies across lifts and entrance systems, demonstrating strong institutional appetite for this discipline within a technical building-services platform. Lift maintenance and compliance is highly recurring, accreditation-led, and commands premium multiples from strategic acquirers. A single specialist acqui-hire or bolt-on acquisition would bring Lift Engineering Certificate (LEC) accreditation and an established service-contract base. For clients managing complex estates — residential FM, NHS, education — lift compliance alongside fire, water and air quality creates a genuinely comprehensive single-supplier offering.
From contractor to infrastructure partner.
AMPM Live is a client-facing digital platform that provides building owners and facilities managers with real-time visibility of their assets, compliance status, and service delivery. It is designed to move AMPM Group from service provider to strategic infrastructure partner — central to how clients manage their compliance obligations.
8.1 · Platform overview
AMPM Live is a multi-user portal with role-based access. Each client's view is configured to their specific asset base and reporting requirements:
- Live asset register — every asset on site, with status, last service date, and next due date
- Compliance dashboard — real-time visibility of outstanding actions, overdue items, and certification status
- KPI reporting — customisable metrics relevant to the client's obligations (fire-door inspections, detection system tests, suppression certifications, etc.)
- Job instruction — clients can raise reactive jobs, request quotations, or approve variations directly through the portal
- Document repository — all certificates, inspection reports, and remediation records stored and accessible on demand, meeting golden-thread obligations under the Building Safety Act
8.2 · Why this matters commercially
The structural moat
- Once a client's asset base is onboarded to AMPM Live, the data relationship makes switching to a competitor operationally disruptive.
- It positions AMPM as a technology-enabled partner, not a commodity trades contractor — supporting premium pricing.
- It enables proactive compliance management rather than reactive break-fix, driving higher annual contract values.
- Golden-thread documentation within the platform directly addresses the Building Safety Act's digital record-keeping requirement, making AMPM Live a compliance tool as well as a client service tool.
8.3 · Technology investment
AMPM Live is in active development. A portion of the Group working-capital fund is earmarked for platform build. The target is soft launch to existing Gemini clients in 2026, with full commercial release as a value-added service layer in 2027.
The hands on the tiller.
9.1 · Leadership team
| Name | Role | Background |
|---|---|---|
| Jamie Dawson | Chair, AMPM Group | Co-founder and former equity owner, Gemini AMPM. Prior to Gemini, Managing Director — Compliance at Lakehouse plc (now Sureserve Group plc, £330m+ revenue, AIM-listed), where he led the acquisition and integration of multiple businesses including a water-treatment company, a lift-services operator and a gas-services business — direct M&A origination, due-diligence and integration experience at scale. Subsequently spent 20+ years building Gemini AMPM from start-up through growth, EOT transition and Group formation. Drives Group strategy and investor relationships. |
| Dan Small | Managing Director, AMPM Group | Former MD of Gemini AMPM. Operational lead across all trading divisions. Longest-serving member of the management team with deep client and supply-chain relationships. |
| Luke Finney | Commercial Director, AMPM Group | Co-founder and former equity owner, Gemini AMPM. Leads commercial strategy, estimating, bid management and new business development across the Group. |
Full leadership biographies are provided as a separate document. All three founders came from trades apprenticeships — a background that directly informs the Academy initiative described below.
9.2 · AMPM Academy
AMPM Academy is a planned Group entity targeted for launch in Q3 2027. It addresses a problem that is both personal and commercial: the UK compliance and building-services sector has a chronic skills-pipeline problem, and not enough opportunity is being created for young people entering the trades.
Three commercial purposes
- Internal pipeline — apprentices trained to Group standards and absorbed into Gemini and the subsidiary businesses, reducing reliance on the external labour market and stabilising wage costs at scale.
- Workforce differentiation — a trained, culturally-aligned workforce creates a service-quality advantage over competitors relying on labour agencies and subcontract labour.
- External IP licensing — accreditation pathways, training content, and regulatory compliance curricula licensed to other operators in the sector. A recurring, high-margin revenue stream that does not require headcount growth.
Apprenticeship programmes are already running within Gemini AMPM at small scale. The Academy formalises and expands this, with a dedicated entity structure and commercial development plan.
This is also a material asset in PE exit positioning. An owned training and accreditation platform adds demonstrable scarcity value to an acquirer seeking to inherit a sustainable talent pipeline, not just a client book.
9.3 · Employee Ownership Trust heritage
The EOT transition at Gemini AMPM (October 2024) reflected the founders' commitment to the workforce that built the business. The EOT structure is preserved within the Group architecture. Beyond its governance implications, it creates:
- A cultural alignment between the Group's values and its people — reduced turnover, higher discretionary effort
- A public-sector procurement advantage under PPN 06/20 social-value scoring
- A narrative that differentiates the Group from corporate roll-up acquirers in client conversations