Introducing the Procurement Growth Group – A Partnership between Executive Compass and Thornton & Lowe

The Procurement Growth Group brings together Executive Compass and Thornton & Lowe, creating a new heavyweight bid consultancy.

The formation of the Procurement Growth Group creates the largest bid consultancy in the UK, providing bid writing, bid review, bid writing training and bid management services in support of thousands of tender projects each year.

With nearly 35 years’ collective experience and 76 directly employed staff, the Group is ready to scale services and support clients to win more work with the public sector.

Executive Compass and Thornton & Lowe over the years

Both Executive Compass and Thornton & Lowe were formed in 2009, when bid and tender writing was a niche, specialised service. Executive Compass was founded by Neil Capstick and is headquartered in Newcastle, with recent leadership under CEO Christian Rowe positioning the firm as the trusted partner for SMEs looking to win public sector contracts.

Similarly, Thornton & Lowe, headquartered in Bolton, was founded by Dave Thornton and focuses on tender writing, bid management and wider procurement support. Last year, the company also acquired other tender companies AM Bid and Bidding Limited – also joining the Procurement Growth Group, forming a portfolio of specialist bid consultancies.

Both have grown from regional consultancies to national providers of bid services, helping thousands of clients to secure public sector contracts and places on framework agreements.

Service continuity alongside scaled growth

Importantly, day-to-day services will remain the same for current clients, with Executive Compass and Thornton & Lowe alike retaining brand identity, standards of service and assigned project leads.

Equally, Matthew Walker will remain Managing Director of Executive Compass, with Tom Sander-Daniel retaining the same position at Thornton & Lowe.

However, the structure of the Procurement Growth Group creates new opportunities to scale expertise, existing services and growth, including:

• Bringing together decades of experience to support clients with complex procurement processes at a group level
• Greater resource for major procurement procedures, with some tenders with which we support requiring hundreds of pages for the quality submission
• Bid software products, such as Executive Compass’ proprietary bidtogether AI platform and Thornton & Lowe’s Tender Library and Tender Pipeline service lines.

Words from the Group owners

‘… Executive Compass has always been built on practical support, technical quality and a genuine commitment to helping businesses succeed through better bidding.

Joining forces under Procurement Growth Group allows us to build on that work at a greater scale, while keeping the values and client focus that have made both businesses successful.’

• Neil Capstick, Group Strategy Director

‘… This is an exciting moment for our people, our clients and the wider bid writing and tendering market. 

The combined group gives us greater depth, broader expertise and more ways to support organisations at every stage of their bidding journey, from opportunity identification and strategy through to submission, review and long-term improvement.’

• Christian Rowe, Group Commercial Director

‘… Bringing these businesses together is part of the group’s highly ambitious plans, and people should watch this space. We are staying focused on procurement, tendering and business growth, and we will be driving hard to build on the strength, talent and reputation across the group.

It is a real honour and pleasure to be part of the same group… Onwards and upwards.’

• Dave Thornton, Group CEO

What this means for public sector procurement

The tender process has seen an explosion in activity since both companies originally formed in 2009. Competition has increased, and more UK businesses than ever rely on the public sector as a means of expanding their portfolio of contracts, driving wider business growth.

This has also led to new challenges in the procurement process, such as more specialised knowledge, complex procurement pipelines and evolving legislative compliance.

The Procurement Growth Group has formed with cognisance of these challenges, recognising the increased strategic importance of business growth through public sector bidding. By increasing capacity, capability and investing in new services, collaboratively we will help drive our clients’ business development and success.

Bid and tender support

Alongside the exciting news of the Procurement Growth Group, Executive Compass will continue to provide high-quality bid services to clients, adhering to our core values of trust, quality, organisation, teamwork and communication.

To find out more about how we can support the growth of your business through the bid services we provide, book a free 30-minute consultation today.