Powering Growth for Leading Sports Surface Specialist: Our Investment in Replay Maintenance

Investment: Replay Maintenance

Investment Type: MBO

Investment Amount: £6.5m

Sector: Business Services

Synthetic sports surfaces can offer a raft of benefits for clubs, associations and leisure industry operators, making them a popular investment for many.

They are durable, safe and provide a consistent experience for users throughout the changing seasons – if they’re properly maintained. With specialist care the lifecycle of these next generation surfaces can also be extended.

Providing this type of maintenance is a highly skilled calling and only a small number of companies have carved out a presence at the top of this service market. Replay Maintenance has long been recognised as one of the best.

The business, which is headquartered in Long Bennington, East Midlands, has a 20-year track record in delivering service and maintenance contracts for synthetic sports surfaces across the UK. It has established itself as a market leading specialist in athletics tracks, 3G pitches, artificial tennis courts, water-based hockey pitches and sand-filled or sand-dressed carpet sports surfaces.

Now, with a £6.5 million MBO investment from YFM, Replay is set to achieve further growth by building upon its existing client base, pursuing new business and amplifying its exceptional reputation.

The investment case for the business is clear and informed by a number of underlying strengths.

A strong foundation to build upon

Replay Maintenance has seen major growth since its inception and the company now boasts approximately 800 service agreement customers, with new enquiries daily. The Replay team has also grown substantially with 50 staff now employed, evenly split between head office and site-based, operating from approximately 7,000 maintained facilities throughout the UK & Ireland.

A leading reputation

Having nurtured a really strong position as a go-to provider of synthetic sports surface services in the UK, Replay is a major player in the market. Its team of field operatives utilises a range of specialist equipment to service a broad array of clients, and a host of county football associations. The company has also been called upon to ready athletics facilities for international competitions held in the UK, including the 2012 Olympics and the 2014 and 2022 Commonwealth games.

An innovative approach

Always seeking to push the boundaries of its offering, to provide customers with new and innovative solutions to their surface maintenance challenges, Replay is focused on developing its own trademarked services. These include sports surface lifespan extending programme, Replay Revive® and Replay Aquatrax ® – a cleaning process widely recognised as the best in its class.

Leaning on these qualities and supported by the YFM team, Replay Maintenance is now readied to continue its scale up – leveraging its long-standing reputation and achieving its growth ambitions faster.