"We started SigmaRoc in 2016 from a blank sheet of paper, on the back of an idea I had been working on since 2013. We took over a shell company on the London Stock Exchange and gathered just enough cash to keep the lights on. We assembled a great founding team and got on our way.
That founding team is still present today and its complementarity and drive are probably two key ingredients explaining the evolution of the business. Our Chairman is a serial entrepreneur in the construction materials space having set up, built, grown and/or sold various successful companies in the UK. He brought over 40 years of industry experience to the table. Charlie, our CTO, spent the decade prior to SigmaRoc as a minerals processing engineer across the globe, building plants and running operations. Our CIO, a fund manager, and computer programmer with a fascination for big data coding, provided us with the much-required systems competence as well as securing our initial financial support. Our CFO, an entrepreneur and chartered accountant who built a successful accounting and advisory business, provided structure, transaction, and reporting excellence, right from the start.
This small team then set out to acquire and improve over 20 companies in the space of 7 years. As the Group became larger, further team members joined the company, each time sharing the same eagerness to build a business and do more with what we owned or bought. A key ingredient was a decentralised and flat organisation. Giving managers and their teams a way to define their own careers, taking responsibility for their businesses and turning them into better more performing platforms, has been the driving force behind our journey.
This journey took us to the Channel Islands first, mainland UK next, into the Benelux and then onto Scandinavia and Central Europe. Along the way, the Group became ever larger needing ever more structure and process. Yet, the Group retained its characteristic entrepreneurial flair and drive to build, improve by taking colleagues on our journey and allowing them to develop their skills and build their competences. These characteristics in particular have enabled us to weather storm after storm, be it covid, or the Ukraine war, inflation or energy price rises.
As we look forward to our next steps, we see plenty of potential ahead. The Group, through its fantastic people and their willingness to deliver ever more impressive results, keeps impressing me every day. This combination of high quality and driven people, stunning assets across Northern Europe and a mentality geared to overcoming difficult challenges is a truly powerful mix."
Max Vermorken, CEO