CROWD proudly announces the acquisition of Bailey Street Furniture Group

A giant leap forward towards realising our vision of circular, smart and innovative public spaces – CROWD proudly announces the acquisition of Bailey Street Furniture Group

Since its foundation in 2014, Creators of the Outside World (CROWD) have had the ambition to make a significant impact on the outside public living environment.

A young and innovative group of established companies, we are involved in and contribute  to designing and furnishing public spaces with products which enable modal transport, socialisation, and interaction, along with sustainable and circular design principles.

From the initial moment of forming the CROWD group, we have aimed to encourage people to go outside and become the leading group in street furniture, public sheltering, and bicycle parking infrastructure across Western Europe.

It is with great pleasure that today, we as CROWD are delighted to announce the acquisition of Bailey Street Furniture Group (BSFG).

After being active for many years in the street furniture arena, Ian Bailey founded Bailey Streetscene back in 2003 with the straight-forward vision ‘to build a better world by creating stimulating and functional outdoor spaces that allow us to thrive and enhance our everyday lives.’

It was only in 2012 that after years of successful development, Bailey Street Furniture Group was established, merging affiliated brands (Bailey Streetscene, Artform Urban Furniture, AMV Playgrounds and Street Furniture Direct) and all associated products into one core group umbrella. Since its beginning, the Bailey name has been synonymous with high quality and reliable external furniture making them one of the leading companies in the UK in our field.

Ian Bailey and the BSFG management team are extremely enthusiastic about the integration into the CROWD group of companies. Having made significant progress year-on-year in improving their day-to-day operations and strengthening their market position, this collaboration is the next step in continuing the plans for future growth in the UK.

Being already established in the UK market Cyclepods – a brand well-known for their focus on cyclists, design, and sustainability - it was a logical conclusion and consequence in the wake of the acquisition of BSFG to form a new UK Group combining both companies.

Combining experience of street furniture, canopy & playground divisions, with the clear market leader in cycle parking & storage solutions (Cyclepods), provides a robust, comprehensive, and consolidated offer to the UK market. 

James Steward, CEO CROWD Group, says;

‘I am pleased to announce that Our Mission, to encourage people to go outside, alongside Our Vision, to be the leading group in street furniture, public sheltering, and bicycle parking infrastructure with a key focus on Circularity and Smart city solutions across Western Europe, by 2023 is well within our grasps due to the acquisition of Bailey Street Furniture Group (BSFG). Our newly formed UK Group combining both Cyclepods and BSFG, provides full geographic coverage to the UK, with locations in Kent, Lancashire and Cheshire, a comprehensive product portfolio spanning street furniture, play, cycling infrastructure and sheltering, and, last but by no means least, UK based manufacture! Reshoring manufacture to the UK plays a pivotal role within CROWD enabling us to meet and hopefully exceed our Circular and sustainability goals. We are firmly committed to CROWD UK and its own local mission to be number one in the UK market!’

Following the statement of James Steward, CEO of the CROWD Group, the strategic synergies freed and released by combining both companies are obvious and will bring a huge amount of value to both the group and all companies within.

As newly assigned CEO for the UK group, David Leach says that;

‘the acquisition of Bailey Street Furniture Group into the CROWD Group is a hugely significant and exciting opportunity for everyone involved and I am personally very honoured to be leading the way forward in my new role as the CEO for the UK group.  It is significant to our market sector as, with CROWD group’s backing, we will continue on the trajectory of the great business Ian Bailey and his team has built, to become the number one provider for innovation, design and quality, when it comes to SMART, sustainable, street furniture and cycle parking infrastructure.  With David Pringle continuing as MD of Bailey Street Furniture Group and with Cyclepods joining the Bailey Street Furniture Group stable of companies, I believe we are perfectly positioned to deliver on this vision.’

His vision is fully shared Ian Bailey, founder of the BSFG and David Pringle, Managing director of the BSFG;

‘Having achieved our long term objective to build BSFG into an established and leading provider of street furniture and associated products to the UK construction sector, I am delighted that the acquisition by CROWD Group, their clear vision and industry experience, makes them the perfect fit and custodians of the brand in the UK going forward’. 
- Ian Bailey, Business founder and outgoing CEO of BSFG

‘The existing BSFG team are extremely enthusiastic about the integration plans and share the vison of CROWD in the UK & Europe. We look forward to collaboration, growth and combining the experience of our street furniture & playground divisions, with the clear market leader in turnkey cycle parking & storage solutions. Providing a robust, comprehensive and consolidated offer to the UK construction, infrastructure and educational sectors’.
- David Pringle, Managing Director of BSFG.

It was with unwavering engagement and support from Convent Capital, majority shareholder in CROWD, that we have been able to take this significant step forward towards achieving our vision and ambitions.

Dirk Hoorn, Co-founder of Convent Capital says;

‘from the outset we believed that by forming the CROWD group in 2014 we could play a positive key role in the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of people, along with contributing to the Circular economy. 8 years on we at Convent are incredibly proud to witness the continued growth within the group which, with it brings the continued and enhanced contribution to wellness in society by inspiring active travel, play and sport along with socialisation and cleanliness in the public domain. The addition of Bailey Street furniture Group not only strengthens the group from a geographical and revenue perspective but also just as importantly, from a production point of view which enables our circular ambitions even further.’

About CROWD

Creators of the outside world is a young and innovative group of established companies that is involved in designing and furnishing the public space. CROWD’s key focus areas are within Cycling Infrastructure, Shelters and Street furniture.

CROWD aims to make a conscious contribution to the living environment of society by developing products which enable modal transport, socialisation, and interaction, along with sustainable and circularity design principles. CROWD’s majority shareholder is CONVENT CAPITAL.

CROWD was founded in 2014 and via its buy & build strategy consists now with the acquisition of Bailey Street Furniture Group of 6 companies, namely VelopA, Ziegler, Ijslander, Cyclepods and Lumiguide. Group turnover is more than €80mio, with a total of 7 office locations throughout Europe and 378 employees.