Worcestershire communications company doubles turnover of events agency
A Worcestershire communications group has doubled the turnover of a corporate events agency it bought just two years ago. DRPG founder and Group CEO, Dale Parmenter, has also revealed that the company is in talks with a German business in order to fuel further growth.
DRP Group (DRPG) bought Windsor-based event specialists Penguins in 2017 and has now boosted the firm’s turnover to over £8m a year, which has allowed the wider group to maintain growth close to 40 per cent and achieve turnover of £31 million.
As a result of this growth, the firm recently featured in the Worcestershire Growth Report, published by accountancy and business advisory firm BDO and identifies the county’s 50 fastest growing firms.
Dale said the firm is now looking into four acquisitions – with two happening in the next six months – adding to the five it has made so far while it is in talks with a German partner.
Parmenter said: “We’re hoping to achieve our first £10m per annum client and the growth of a company such as Penguins is helping us on our way to that.
“There is a reason why we bought the company and we always look for people to stay with the business after the acquisition and to get excited by the road ahead.
“We don’t change their brand or their culture, we just look for synergies between ourselves and them that will allow us to work together, whilst giving the existing team the autonomy to carry on doing what they are doing, but with the added resources to offer a more complete service.
“It has given the people we’ve acquired more confidence in their business as they can now do things they previously would have shied away from.
“We made our first acquisition around six years ago after realising there was no reason to think we couldn’t, despite not being the biggest company, and one piece of advice I’d give to other businesses would be to not be afraid to invest.
“The UK is seen as a centre of excellence for creativity and we are realising there are great opportunities to take what we’ve done here and apply it globally.”
DRPG is also tackling the skills gap with its own training academy, apprenticeship scheme and schools and university recruitment programme.
Gary Rouse, director at BDO, said the DRPG model is crucial to economic growth in the UK.
He said: “Innovation, international investment, sustained growth and nurturing of talent are all hallmarks of the new business ecosystem that Britain will need to thrive in the coming years.
“DRPG proves this mix doesn’t have to be restricted to big cities such as London and this kind of success can just as easily be achieved in other regions throughout the UK.”
