Serial acquisitors the Master Removers Group has sold Bishopsgate Specialist Installations - its specialist logistics business - to the publicly quoted Swedish logistics company Elanders Group for £47.5m after expanding sales in 2007 of £2.5m to £27m last year.

After twenty years of consecutive purchases, this is the first sale of one of the Group’s businesses. The Master Removers Group acquired Bishopsgate Specialist Installations for £1 in 2007 after the business had been through a tricky trading period.

Charles Rickards, the Group’s finance and marketing director who heads up Mergers and Acquisitions within the Group said: “When we bought Bishopsgate, we were operating outside our normal comfort zone of removals and storage. It has not all been plain sailing, but we did get off to a good start which is always essential with new ventures and managed to get more things right than we got wrong and perhaps our simplistic way of addressing opportunities kept us in good stead and more importantly it has been good fun, most of the time!”

The Master Removers Group (MGR) has been running a progressive equity sharing policy since 2004 when five key members of staff were given the opportunity to buy into the business by the owner Anthony Ward Thomas and the opportunity to double their stake once an annual profit of £1m was reached and a dividends policy to pay out 25% profits on a quarterly basis. Twenty years on, over 40 members of the 500 members of staff are shareholders and the business last year achieved annual sales of £47m and profits of nearly £9m.

“We have tried to concentrate on the simple everyday challenges of doing what we do well, and on the odd occasion when we do get it wrong, stick our hands up quickly and make good,” said Charles. “The simple principles to running a good business in a fast-moving world are still valid and the opportunity to share the success with the person who sits next to you in the office are very rewarding and ensures someone switches the lights off at the end of the day.”

MRG, which owns 11 removal brands between London and Bridport including Anthony Ward Thomas and Aussie Man and Van in London to the recently acquired Northover Gilbert in Bridport, plans further growth over the coming years whilst keeping a careful eye for robots which can lift a four-seater sofa up three flights of stairs and have a firm discussion with a traffic warden!