Davies Broadens Resourcing and Consulting Capability Through the Acquisition of Grovelands

LONDON, UK – 14 May 2021 – Davies, the leading specialist professional services and technology business, serving insurance and highly regulated markets, today announced the acquisition of Grovelands, the resourcing and consultancy firm specialising in fraud, financial crime, remediation and regulatory transformation projects to the insurance and other highly regulated markets.

Based in Brighton, UK, Grovelands will be incorporated into Davies Resourcing and will form part of the firm’s existing Consulting & Technology business led by CEO Mark Grocott. Ben Wilson, Grovelands CEO and founders Mark Davies & David Leen will continue to lead the day to day operations and the wider team will remain in their roles within Davies.

In recent years Davies has diversified and deepened its Consulting & Technology capability to provide customer experience, resourcing and learning solutions, as well as data & speech analytics, robotic process automation, legacy platform modernisation and product development for its 800+ insurance and highly regulated clients.

In March Davies announced a new shareholder, with BC Partners signing a definitive deal to take a majority stake in the business (subject to customary approvals), to support Davies next phase of international expansion and continued digital transformation. Globally Davies 4,300 colleagues operate across Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, the UK and US. The business delivers professional services and technology solutions across the risk and insurance value chain, including excellence in claims, underwriting, distribution, regulation, customer experience, human capital, digital transformation & change management.

Dan Saulter, Group CEO of Davies commented: “I’m delighted to welcome Ben and the wider team to Davies. The insurance market is undergoing significant digital and operational transformation.  To ensure we can lead this change we must continue to invest in our consulting and technology operations to support our insurance and highly regulated clients.  Businesses seeking to deliver transformation and regulatory projects want to do so without disrupting their business-as-usual operations and service delivery, which is where we step in.”

He added: “Diversifying our solutions and expanding our operations is an important plank to our growth strategy. By adding specialist consulting and technology solutions we can become more valuable to our 800+ global insurance and highly regulated clients.”

Ben Wilson, CEO of Grovelands added: “We’re delighted to be joining Davies, a likeminded business committed to delivering exceptional client service; and who are at the forefront of innovation. Davies has an excellent track record of investing in new technology and diversifying its solutions to better serve its clients. The cultural fit was an important factor for us and I’m pleased that this partnership will provide the Grovelands team with more career development opportunities within a fast growing, ambitious firm.”

Optima Corporate Finance provided corporate finance advice to the shareholders of Grovelands.