This is the third acquisition Premier Park has made since Sovereign backed the business in May 2019 to meet the increasing demand for its services through organic growth and strategic acquisitions.

Established in 2012, Park Watch provides car park management solutions to private car parks in the UK. Based in Cheshire, the business manages sites for a range of enterprise, property management agent and SME clients and strengthens Premier’s North West presence. In 2019 Premier Park acquired UK Car Park Management (UKCPM), one of the UK’s largest providers of car park management solutions and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) services to enterprise and SME customers. Like Premier, UKCPM installs and manages ANPR cameras and provides patrol services to monitor usage, prevent abuse and ensure legitimate users have parking access. This was followed by the acquisition of Stafford-based iView, a proprietary software business which provides ANPR processing capability to the wider parking sector.

The acquisitions have built the Group to become an integrated and scaled car park management business delivering an end-to-end service with market leading proprietary technology and internal processing capabilities. This latest acquisition takes the total number of sites under management across the UK to over 7,000 and brings the number of staff to c.160.

At the time of Sovereign’s investment in Premier Park Paul Dawson, Group CEO, joined the business. Paul had spent c.18 years working at Capita plc and held various senior management roles including CEO of ParkingEye and divisional MD of Capita Parking Services. Andy Parker, the highly experienced former Group CEO of Capita plc joined the business as non-executive Chairman.

Jonathan Thorne, Director, Sovereign Capital Partners commented:

“Premier Park is a high-quality business led by an exceptional management team. Park Watch, like Premier Park, is operating at activity levels close to pre-lockdown and the Group is performing well. We look forward to continuing to partner the team as Premier Park seeks new opportunities to grow in what is a fragmented and growth market.”

Paul Dawson, Group CEO, Premier Park said:

“This is a really exciting time and I am pleased to welcome Park Watch to the Group. Our business has grown rapidly over the last year and we have fantastic capability which we will continue to develop whilst remaining fully focused on the quality of service we deliver to our clients.”