Powerleague is a leading operator of small sided football artificial pitches with 42 football centres across the UK, Ireland and Netherlands, based in Fitzrovia, London in England. It also has a successful league operations arm called Powerplay which runs and manages leagues in over 350 locations across the UK for both football and netball. Powerleague has developed an exclusive football playing surface called “POWERPITCH™” which it claims to be the best artificial playing surface in the industry.
In 1987 Keith Rogers opened the world’s first commercial 5-a-side football centre [1] in Paisley under the brand name of Pitz, [1] . He built a successful business with 11 centres and a site pipeline before selling the profitable business to 3i who rebranded the business as Powerleague.
In 2002, after the business went into decline under new management, 3i approached Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Chief Executive Claude Littner to take over the executive role. [2] In 2003, Littner led a management buyout of the firm, leaving 3i with a minority stake. Having listed on the Alternative Investment Market, in 2008 Powerleague took over the Soccerdome centres from JJB Sports in a £17.4M deal. [3] Powerleague was then acquired by Patron Capital in December 2009. [4]
Patron Capital installed a highly experienced new management team in 2018. The leadership team is led by current CEO Christian Rose. Rose is joined by Mike Evans (CFO) and John Gillespie (COO). Since 2018, Powerleague has seen a sustained period of success and in 2021 recorded revenues of over £24.5m with EBITDA of £3.9m.
In large part, this period of sustained growth has coincided with re-investment in Powerleague's 42 football centres. With a particular focus on brand-new pitches, club house upgrades and re-developed bar areas.
The Proximus Group is a provider of digital services and communication solutions operating in Belgium and international markets. In Belgium, the company offers its main products and services under the brands Proximus, Scarlet, and Mobile Vikings. The Group also operates in Luxembourg as Proximus Luxembourg SA, with the brandsTango and Telindus Luxembourg, and in the Netherlands as Telindus Netherlands. Internationally, activities are carried out by BICS and Telesign. Proximus Accelerators is the ecosystem of IT partners Be-Mobile, ClearMedia, Codit, Davinsi Labs, Proximus Spearit and Telindus.
3i Group plc is a British multinational private equity and venture capital company based in London, England. 3i is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Sir Terence Patrick "Terry" Leahy is a British businessman, previously the CEO of Tesco, the largest British retailer and the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues. He is now a senior advisor at private equity company Clayton Dubilier & Rice.
David Whelan is an English businessman and former footballer. During his football career, he played for Blackburn Rovers and Crewe Alexandra. Whelan is the former owner of club Wigan Athletic, having also been the chairman of the club for twenty years, before passing the position over to his grandson, David Sharpe, who eventually passed the ownership over to International Entertainment Corporation.
Telecity Group plc, was a European carrier-neutral datacentre and colocation centre provider. It specialised in the design, build and management of datacentre space. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Equinix in January 2016.
JJB Sports plc was a British sports retailer. On 24 September 2012, shares in JJB Sports were suspended, and the firm called in administrators. On 1 October 2012, it was announced that Sports Direct had purchased part of the business, including 20 stores, the brand, and its website for £28.3 million.
Infratil Limited is a New Zealand-based infrastructure investment company. It owns renewable energy, digital infrastructure, airports, and healthcare assets with operations in New Zealand, Australia, Asia, the US and Europe. Infratil was founded by the late Lloyd Morrison, a Wellington-based merchant banker. Morrison's company, H. R. L. Morrison & Co, is responsible for Infratil's management and administration.
Goals Soccer Centres is an operator of dedicated 5-a-side football centres based in Glasgow, with 45 locations in the UK and four in Los Angeles.
Orrell Rugby Union Football Club is a rugby union club from Orrell in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester.
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New Douglas Park, currently known as the ZLX Stadium for sponsorship purposes, is a football stadium in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, which serves as the home of Scottish League One side Hamilton Academical and Scottish League Two side Clyde. It takes its name from Douglas Park, the club's former stadium which was located immediately to the south of the current site.
Standard Life is a life assurance, pensions and long-terms savings company in the UK which is owned by Phoenix Group.
Timothy Campbell is an English businessman best known as the winner of the first series of the British version of The Apprentice, a BBC TV reality show in which contestants competed to win a £100,000-a-year job working for businessman Alan Sugar.
Claude Littner is an American-born British business executive and the former chairman of Viglen, Powerleague, ASCO and Azzuri Communications. He is also the deputy chairman of Blacks Leisure and former chief executive of Tottenham Hotspur. He is also known from his appearances on the British version of The Apprentice, interviewing for his former boss Alan Sugar. Littner was one of Sugar's aides between 2015 and 2019.
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SLR Consulting is a privately owned international sustainability consultancy with offices in Europe, North America, South America, Australasia, and Africa. In 2019, it reported revenues of £150.8 million. Its purpose is ‘Making Sustainability Happen’, which it achieves through its global team of expert advisors and technicians, who partner with clients to tackle some of the world’s most complex sustainability challenges.
DW Sports Fitness was a British retailing and fitness business, founded as a result of Dave Whelan's purchase of 50 JJB Sports fitness clubs with attached retail stores for £83.4 million in March 2009. The business would later encompass more than 140 sites, which included expansion to stand-alone retail stores and stand-alone fitness clubs. In 2011, the business joined buying group Intersport, and began using its name within its facades, and in 2016 it joint-purchased the Fitness First UK business alongside The Gym Group and Greenwich Leisure Limited.
BGF Investment Management Limited, established in 2011 as the Business Growth Fund, is an investment company that provides growth capital for small and mid-sized businesses in the UK and Ireland.
Abrdn plc, formerly Standard Life Aberdeen plc, is a United Kingdom-based global investment company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
The sixteenth series of British reality television series The Apprentice (UK) premiered on 6 January 2022 in the UK on BBC One. It is the first series to be broadcast since the COVID-19 pandemic, with filming originally planned to begin in spring 2020, however the pandemic forced the BBC to postpone production until the following year. The BBC instead aired six special compilation episodes featuring highlights from previous series which aired from 1 October to 5 November 2020. The series features sixteen candidates and sees Tim Campbell, the winner of the first series replace Claude Littner as Lord Sugar's aide, after Littner suffered an injury whilst cycling. The candidates for the sixteenth series were revealed on 4 January 2022, two days before the show's premiere.