Features / If I Knew Then

If I Knew Then: Ross Ancell

By Laura Collacott  Monday Mar 21, 2016

The Churngold portfolio of companies operates across a range of businesses, including groundworks, civil engineering, construction and land remediation, where contaminants are treated or removed from soil in preparation for development. Formed in Bristol in 1983, the company was bought by current chairman Ross Ancell in 1996 and has 200 employees across the South West and Wales.

At its peak, the company turned over £45m but the recession hit hard, knocking some 55 per cent off the figure. New Zealander Ross has since piloted the multimillion-pound group back to success, with a turnover of £38m in 2015. The Morrisons distribution centre at Avonmouth, Southmead Hospital, Filton Abbey Wood and Bristol Airport’s terminal building are among the major projects Churngold has worked on.

How did you start at Churngold?
I had been in senior roles at George Wimpey PLC for fifteen years and had built or run large businesses only to have them sold (Wimpey Waste Management) or asset swapped (Wimpey Minerals) by the parent company. I felt I was long overdue to be running my own business. In late 1996 I led a management team buy-in to acquire the Churngold businesses.

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If you knew then what you know now, what mistakes might you have avoided? 
I would have sought to borrow more and invest more of my own capital rather than involve private equity (PE) investors. The PE backers made £12m on their £2.1m investment over six years whilst adding little real value.

What advice would you have given yourself when starting out?  
Be much tougher, and quicker to replace under-performing staff, avoid PE investment if at all possible and be even more involved in the day to day minutiae of the business.

If you knew then what you know now, would you still be sitting there?
Yes. I believe I would be in a similar position, but possibly with a different mix of businesses in the portfolio.

What do you know now that you didn’t know then? 
It is more about applying knowledge as the economic cycle and political environment changes. Another twenty years of experience at the coal face has shown that challenges and opportunities repeat themselves over and over.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received so far? 
A wise, older businessman once told me you need to be involved in three types of business for fully rounded success: public (to get knowledge of stock exchange companies and profile), private (to be free of constraints of public investor base and be more liberated) and; something overseas (to enable some travel and wider perspective on the world). I’ve heeded this advice, but I would add a fourth strand; education/charity as part of giving something back to one’s community.

What is your business highlight? 
Highlights are the sale of various businesses – Churngold Waste Management and EnviroScot (both waste companies) and JWS Churngold (logistics) from the Churngold “stable” – along with Churngold Construction working on some of the major showpiece buildings in Bristol and South Wales, for example Southmead Hospital.

What is your business lowpoint? 
Some compliance issues affected one of the smaller businesses in 2011/12.  As a result of dealing with that Churngold was unable to take advantage of a major investment opportunity which has gone on to be hugely successful.

What keeps you awake? 
Nothing keeps me awake.  

What’s changed from when you started out? 
Everything is much faster, the business and regulatory environment is harder and the importance of a very few key individuals in my organisation has increased.  Conversely, there are almost limitless opportunities to create or expand our businesses. 

What’s still on your to-do list? 
More of the same whilst enjoying life.

What’s next for Churngold? 
Keep Churngold Construction growing in a risk averse way and to develop the Churngold Remediation business after a sluggish period.  Ideally to use the cash flows from these businesses to create and develop further opportunities. Our most exciting opportunity is an investment in Assured Digital Group – as the name suggests, a company offering security assured platforms to cloud users.  This comes out of an existing investment in MDS Technologies, where Churngold invested back in 2008.

Learn more from the experience of Bristol’s business community.

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