Empowering People Group
EPG is one of the UK’s largest specialist providers of people risk and compliance solutions, and the only one covering the full market, from SMEs to major UK corporates
Sector
Business Services
Date acquired
November 2016
Deal type
Private sale
Website
Status
Unrealised
Location
Northwest, UK
Overview
Empowering People Group (EPG) helps employers manage the risk that comes with employing people: employment law and HR advice, health and safety compliance, career transition and training, largely delivered on a subscription basis and supported by proprietary technology.
Limerston had been targeting the human capital management sector since before raising its first fund. We approached AdviserPlus, which became the platform for the group, through an Operating Partner relationship and held discussions for over a year before agreeing terms, acquiring the business outside a competitive process in November 2016.
AdviserPlus was a specialist employee relations provider serving large enterprise clients through expert advisers and case management technology. We were drawn by three things: a structurally growing, compliance-driven market in which rising regulatory requirements keep increasing demand for expert support; strong cash generation and high earnings visibility from multi-year contracts with a blue-chip customer base; and a fragmented competitive landscape offering clear scope to broaden the service range and build scale through acquisition.
What we're doing
Our first priority was the delivery model. We used technology to streamline routine casework, which improved service quality while lowering the cost to serve, and we funded the development of empower®, an award-winning cloud platform that lets line managers resolve people issues with minimal HR involvement.
Alongside that, we rebuilt the foundations of the business including the group leadership team and key hires across technology, commercial and operations, as well as technology infrastructure that enabled seamless integration of acquisitions.
We used that platform to grow share of wallet in core enterprise HR and to expand into adjacencies. The group has completed five acquisitions, culminating in the carve-out of Mentor from NatWest Group in 2026, which broadly doubled the size of the group, added health and safety capability and a substantial SME customer base.
The focus now is integrating Mentor into the EPG platform, including a streamlined client proposition across SME and enterprise, and extending the group’s wider services into the enlarged customer base. EPG is the only UK provider able to serve employers at every scale, from owner-managed businesses with no internal HR function through to organisations employing tens of thousands of people.
Overview
Empowering People Group (EPG) helps employers manage the risk that comes with employing people: employment law and HR advice, health and safety compliance, career transition and training, largely delivered on a subscription basis and supported by proprietary technology.
Limerston had been targeting the human capital management sector since before raising its first fund. We approached AdviserPlus, which became the platform for the group, through an Operating Partner relationship and held discussions for over a year before agreeing terms, acquiring the business outside a competitive process in November 2016.
AdviserPlus was a specialist employee relations provider serving large enterprise clients through expert advisers and case management technology. We were drawn by three things: a structurally growing, compliance-driven market in which rising regulatory requirements keep increasing demand for expert support; strong cash generation and high earnings visibility from multi-year contracts with a blue-chip customer base; and a fragmented competitive landscape offering clear scope to broaden the service range and build scale through acquisition.
What we are doing
Our first priority was the delivery model. We used technology to streamline routine casework, which improved service quality while lowering the cost to serve, and we funded the development of empower®, an award-winning cloud platform that lets line managers resolve people issues with minimal HR involvement.
Alongside that, we rebuilt the foundations of the business including the group leadership team and key hires across technology, commercial and operations, as well as technology infrastructure that enabled seamless integration of acquisitions.
We used that platform to grow share of wallet in core enterprise HR and to expand into adjacencies. The group has completed five acquisitions, culminating in the carve-out of Mentor from NatWest Group in 2026, which broadly doubled the size of the group, added health and safety capability and a substantial SME customer base.
The focus now is integrating Mentor into the EPG platform, including a streamlined client proposition across SME and enterprise, and extending the group’s wider services into the enlarged customer base. EPG is the only UK provider able to serve employers at every scale, from owner-managed businesses with no internal HR function through to organisations employing tens of thousands of people.
35,000+
Organisations supported
500+
Colleagues across the UK
5
Acquisitions completed