Specialist brokers for the electrical contracting sector.
Part of Reads M&A Advisory: Simon Read sells UK electrical contracting businesses, with a small team of specialists behind him.
Reads M&A Advisory: built on many years of business sales.
Reads M&A Advisory is a specialist business brokerage with many years of experience selling accountancy practices and businesses across a range of sectors, and it has built strong relationships with private equity investors (firms that buy companies to grow and sell on), business investors and family offices actively seeking acquisition opportunities.
Electrical contracting is now one of the firm's specialist sectors, and Simon Read runs each sale with many years of selling businesses behind him.
What we bring is a buyer network built over many years of selling businesses, business sales process expertise, and access to consultants, finance directors and acquisition specialists who help prepare your business for sale.
Groups backed by private equity have been buying UK electrical and building services businesses, and since Nov 2025 the five-yearly inspection rule for rented homes in England has covered social housing as well as private lets.
NICEIC or NAPIT registration, framework places and recurring testing and maintenance contracts are among the things a buyer will check.
If you are exploring a sale, your first conversation can be with Simon Read, our Founder & Managing Director, or Emily, and the decisions on your sale are made with Simon.
Key Facts
- Part of Reads Advice Partners Ltd
- Company No. 12124192
- Registered in England and Wales
- Nationwide coverage
- Electrical contracting sector specialists
- Free initial consultation
- Confidential process
Direct access to a sector specialist.
Simon Read manages the Electrical Business Sales division, working directly with every client from initial conversation through to completion. Once you agree to sell, Emily Jeans keeps your case moving, and the rest of the team each handle one part of the work, such as the figures or growing the business.
Simon is the person who understands your industry, has access to the buyer network, and will manage your sale from start to finish.
Simon knows the difference between a business with 200 commercial maintenance contracts and one running a team of domestic qualified electricians. He understands how ECA membership changes a valuation, why NAPIT registration matters to PE buyers, and what the EV charging rollout and public sector framework positions mean for the acquisition market.
This direct, personal approach means nothing is lost in translation.
Your business is positioned accurately, your concerns are heard by the person making decisions, and you always know exactly where you stand in the process.
What you want from the sale comes first.
Every conversation starts with understanding what matters most to you: the price, the legacy, the staff, the timing, or simply getting out with certainty.
Nothing is decided until you are ready.
The seven people behind your sale.
Six people work around Simon, each on one part of the work, from the years of preparation in the Reads Pre-Sale Programme to the day the sale completes.
Simon Read
Founder & Managing Director
Simon founded Accountants For Sale, then Reads M&A Advisory, taking a specialist approach to the wider business sales market with electrical contracting among its sectors. He has many years of experience in business sales and brings together businesses buying within their own trade, private equity-backed groups and strategic investors across the UK. He does not work on volume: each owner gets his close attention on what they want, the right buyers and the negotiation. Away from sales, he presents Business Forum on Cotswold Radio.
He leads the sale of your business, from buyer approaches to completion. He agrees heads of terms with the buyer, the short document setting out the main points of the deal, then sees you through due diligence, the buyer's detailed check of the business.
Nick Hunt
Strategic Growth & Exit Adviser
Nick Hunt is a non-executive director, trustee and executive coach, and a former FTSE100 financial services executive with more than 15 years' experience across strategy, governance, risk and organisational development. As an EMCC-accredited coach he works with founders and leadership teams through growth and change, helping them make clearer decisions. He also founded Cotswold Lakes Brew Co., a certified B Corporation.
He leads the work on profit, structure and decision-making that lets an electrical business keep going when its owner steps back.
Ian Mills
Non-Executive Director
Ian Mills is an entrepreneur and business adviser who founded, built and sold a global professional services firm, and he has worked across more than 60 countries. He now mentors C-suite executives and the leaders of mid-sized businesses, helping them turn ambition into lasting performance. He has co-authored three books, most recently The Leader's Secret Code.
He works alongside Simon on the sale of a larger electrical business, and with owners who want a sale to do more than fund a retirement.
Angela Roberts
Office Manager
Angela Roberts is Office Manager at Reads M&A Advisory, where she keeps the business running smoothly and makes sure every owner gets a prompt, friendly service. She has a background in IT and marketing and founded Cotswold Networking, a network of business groups across the Cotswolds, Bristol and Bath.
She supports owners and the rest of the team throughout a sale; if you have a question at any stage, you can get in touch with the office.
Ben Davies
Financial Preparation Specialist
Ben Davies is a CIMA-qualified management accountant who spent ten years at a building society, working up from apprentice to accountant, before founding his own practice. His strengths are management accounts, cash flow forecasting and reading what a set of figures is really saying. When a buyer wants the financial picture explained in plain terms, Ben is the person who does it.
He gets your accounts and add-backs ready for a buyer, with testing income shown apart from project work before anyone asks.
Martin Dugan
Head of Deal Origination
Martin Dugan's job is to find the conversation before it becomes a listing: he identifies owners who are weighing up a sale but have not yet gone looking for an adviser, and connects them with buyers already registered with Reads. The work is careful research, targeting and patient direct approaches, made quietly and without pressure. He runs AA2, a B2B data and outbound business, and has spent his career putting the right two parties in the same room.
Alongside either route, Martin leads Buyer-ready presence, putting the online foundations in order for customers and a future owner. He also leads growth marketing, a Reads service that turns the same research, careful targeting and patient direct approaches towards winning recurring testing and maintenance contracts for your business.
Emily Jeans
Marketing and Administration Manager
Emily Jeans chases the small details of a sale so nobody else has to. Calm, organised and quick to reply, she is the name you will come to know well.
Once you have agreed to sell, she is your day-to-day contact until completion.
Reads also works with specialist partners: experienced financial planners who help owners with their own finances before and after a sale. Simon can introduce you. See how financial planning around the sale works.
Start a conversation.
Tell us about your business and we will be in touch within two working days.
Thank you for getting in touch.
Simon Read will be in contact within two working days. Everything you have shared is treated in the strictest confidence.
Start with a free first conversation, in confidence, then choose whether you want the paid written Snapshot: see how the two routes fit together.