Deal

Ventro completes acquisition of electrical engineer RD Jukes

By Staff Writer  |  18 August 2026

Building compliance business Ventro has completed the acquisition of RD Jukes, a family run electrical engineering firm based in Walsall employing 29 people, with existing staff and operations to remain in place.

Completion was announced on 17 August 2026. RD Jukes was founded in 1968 by Roy and Eiryl Jukes and is now led by Julian Jukes, son of the founders. The business generates annual revenue of approximately 6 million pounds.

RD Jukes delivers specialist electrical engineering services, particularly across the NHS and the wider public sector, and has customer relationships in which a number of partnerships span more than 20 years. Ventro states that existing staff and operations will be kept in place.

Ventro says the acquisition will allow it to deliver fully integrated building compliance services, combining specialist electrical engineering with the group's wider compliance offering, so that customers can consolidate more of their compliance requirements under a single provider. The purchase price has not been published.

The acquisition follows earlier expansion by Ventro into electrical and security work, and strengthens the group's presence in the Midlands.

What the practitioner should take from this

A share purchase leaves contracts undisturbed and a business purchase does not, and the distinction decides most of what follows. Where the shares in the trading company change hands, the company remains the contracting party, the appointments and collateral warranties continue in the same name, and nothing needs to be assigned. Where the trade and assets are bought instead, every live contract has to be novated or assigned, and any that is missed remains with a seller that may in time cease to trade. Anyone holding a warranty from a business that has just been acquired should establish which of the two has happened before assuming their security is intact.

Change of control clauses are the second point to check, and they are common in public sector conditions. Many contracts give the employer a right to terminate, or at least a right to be notified and to consent, on a change of control of the contractor. Where a supplier to an NHS trust changes hands, that clause is engaged whether or not anyone intends to rely on it. The consequence of overlooking it is not usually termination; it is a stale contractual position that the employer can raise later when it suits.

Framework places and prequalification standing do not always survive an acquisition either. A place on a framework is often personal to the entity that bid for it, and the financial standing assessed at selection was that of the bidding company rather than of a new parent. Where the acquired business intends to keep working under existing frameworks, the sensible step is to notify the contracting authority and obtain written confirmation, rather than to rely on continuity of trading name.

For electrical work in occupied buildings there is a further layer. Certification, competence schemes and insurer approvals are frequently issued to a named legal entity and a named qualifying supervisor. A change in ownership or in the responsible individual can require reassessment. The practitioner relying on a compliance certificate issued after completion should be satisfied that the issuing body's registration was in place, in that entity's name, on the date the certificate was signed.

Insurance is the last of the routine checks. Professional indemnity cover is written on a claims made basis, so cover has to be in place when a claim is notified rather than when the work was done. Where a business changes hands, the practitioner should confirm who carries run off cover for past work and for how long, because that is the policy any historic defect will need to reach.

None of this suggests any difficulty with this transaction, in which the parties have said that operations continue unchanged. It is the ordinary set of questions that an acquisition in the compliance supply chain should prompt in anyone holding a contract with the acquired business.