Rigby Group

The Rigby Group is the parent company of several privately owned businesses operating across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Rigby Group’s date of incorporation is listed as 1997 by Companies House; however, The Rigby Group’s business and trading activities date back to 1975. The net assets of The Rigby Group are estimated at over £500 million at the end of 2023.

In 2013 the company was ranked 13th in the Sunday Times’ Top Track 100 listing of the UK’s fastest growing private enterprises.

History
The Rigby Group was originally founded as a small computer recruitment company based in Birmingham, named Specialist Computer Recruitment (SCC).

In May 1992, Sir Peter Rigby established the Rigby Foundation to invest in charitable causes relating to lifelong learning, health and education. The group’s hotel division, the Eden Hotel Collection, was founded in 1995 and currently comprises five hotels across the Midlands and South West of England.

In 2006, the group launched its real estate division, Rigby & Rigby. In 2010, the group acquired Coventry Airport from West Midlands Airport Ltd after it was forced to close in 2009 due to debt.

In 2013, the group expanded its aviation division by acquiring British International Helicopters (BIH).

In June 2013, the group acquired Exeter Airport from Balfour Beatty. Sir Peter Rigby commented "that the purchase price was "significantly south" of the £60m paid by Balfour Beatty in 2007".

The following week, the group announced it had also acquired Regional and City Airport Management Limited from Balfour Beatty Plc and became responsible for the overall operation of Blackpool and City of Derry and Solent airports.

In 2014, the group acquired Norwich Airport acquired for an undisclosed sum.

In September 2014, the group’s aviation division completed the acquisition of Capital Air Charter in Exeter, bringing both Capital Air Charter and Capital Air Ambulance services into the Rigby Group.

In 2017, the group acquired Helen Green Design and, in the following year, acquired Lawson Robb to bring together with their own design firm, Rigby & Rigby. Since 2018, these firms have all operated under the new Rigby Group Allect Design banner.

In 2017, the group also acquired Bournemouth Airport from Manchester Airports Group (MAG). As of 2018, the group’s financial services division consisted of three companies: FluidOne, Nuvias and Rigby Capital.

In 2023, the group established Project Sequoia, an initiative to track its progress toward achieving a net zero target by 2040.

According to the 2023 Global Family Index published by EY and the University of St Gallen, The Rigby Group is one of the 500 largest family businesses globally.

In June 2024, alongside Haatch and the West Midlands Co-Invest Fund, the group funded an initiative named ‘One to Win’ that was launched at London Tech Week. The initiative aims to award a single tech start-up firm from the West Midlands region a £1 million prize at Birmingham Tech Week in October 2024.

The Rigby Group is currently headquartered in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Activities
Rigby Group has six key divisions: Technology (Peter Rigby founded SCC, Specialist Computer Centres, in 1975), Airports, Real Estate, Finance, Hotels, and Aviation.

Allect is an international design group. It is the stable for Rigby Group’s design and delivery business. The Allect design group comprises founding member Rigby & Rigby, Helen Green Design (acquired in 2017), and Lawson Robb (acquired in 2018).