BGF expands North West team with new hire

BGF, the UK and Ireland’s most active investor in growing companies, has appointed Spencer Woods as an Investor in its Manchester office.

Spencer joins most recently from Wheatsheaf Group, part of the Grosvenor Estate – where he held the role of Senior Investment and Portfolio Manager, taking a lead on M&A activity, guiding strategy and monitoring the performance of the portfolio. In his time at Wheatsheaf Group, he undertook an operational role within a portfolio company and was seconded to the US for six months to support the establishment of Wheatsheaf’s first US office.

Prior to this, Spencer trained at PwC in Manchester, becoming an Assistant Director in the corporate finance team. Spencer’s role at BGF will see him working across all areas of the investment process, from initial meetings with entrepreneurs and management teams, through to deal completion and continuing to actively work alongside portfolio businesses in the region after completion.

Commenting on his appointment, Spencer said: “BGF has built an excellent reputation in the market for supporting high quality, growth businesses and the success stories in the portfolio reflect this. It’s fantastic to be joining a talented team after a period of record growth and I look forward to working in partnership with management teams in the region to help them achieve their growth ambitions.”

BGF’s team in the North West has now invested more than £230m across 24 businesses since it launched in 2011. Most recently, the team announced a £3.5m investment into Manchester FinTech business Planixs, which recently ranked 22^nd overall in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100. This comes after BGF experienced a record year in the North West in 2018 with new investments including Mission Mars, Evoke Creative and Miss Group.

Neil Inskip, head of BGF’s Manchester office, added: “It’s great to be welcoming Spencer to the team in Manchester to strengthen our presence in the North West. He brings an excellent investment track record and the proven ability to add value to portfolio companies.”