Double-digit growth has been underpinned by a focus on technological innovation and acquisitions as the business has reshaped its leadership team, broadened its market presence, and accelerated its M&A activity.
Detector Testers is proving that M&A can help transform a business. Investment from Inflexion in 2021 enabled the Hertfordshire-based safety testing specialist to wholly acquire a part-owned US business, SDI. Since then, the enlarged firm has solidified its US position, pivoted to a digital offering, and last year entered a new complementary vertical, all helping to achieve double-digit growth rates. And to reflect its new scale, the firm created its new group umbrella called Noventis Safety that Detector Testers and all existing and future acquisitions will align under.
SDI had served as the company’s US distributor and had been growing steadily, providing a foundation for greater focus on the US market. As part of Noventis, growth rates have accelerated, showing the benefits of resources brought by the new partnership.
It was a promising start, and brought some lessons to Robert Campbell, CEO, who feels the early M&A activity revealed gaps in the leadership team, particularly around finance and structuring. "Inflexion were really important in the early days. Internally I was being stretched across many areas of the business and it taught me I didn’t have the right team in place.” He explains that Inflexion’s Talent and Digital teams helped identify precisely which roles to introduce to ensure the business could go on an accelerated growth journey, and they added key roles such as a CFO with PE experience, a VP of Sales to spearhead global growth, a Director for M&A and more sales resource in the US to scale the business in the country.
While ultimate control over hiring remained with Robert, he says Inflexion were instrumental in the process. “There are some skill levels, particularly on the digital side, where they helped me as a true partner to put the right people in place. It was one of the key lynchpins to help us get to where we are today from a digital position and the team helped with interviews, assessments, and job specs – showing me what good looks like and creating a strong shortlist for me to choose from.”
Building this team required significant resource in the first year, and has proven essential. "Everyone I’ve brought on board has experience in M&A, which has really helped us become more self-sufficient in this area," says Robert. With Inflexion’s support, Noventis has completed four acquisitions so far, all in the US, most recently Hose Monster in May 2024, and Global Vision in March 2025.
Strategic acquisitions
The acquisitions have both solidified the company’s presence in key markets and helped it expand into new niches. “We can buy a lot of similar businesses in different countries, but it isn’t very strategic. So I considered what other areas we could tap into within niche markets and high gross margins. I visited a lot of exhibitions and saw the testing requirements for flow tests within the fire sector,” he says, saying this inspired Noventis’s expansion into this area.
The acquisition of Hose Monster, for example, allowed Noventis to enter the flow testing market, adding a new revenue stream that complements its existing smoke detector testing services. "I identified Hose Monster as similar to Noventis but in the wet testing space. It’s a completely complementary market with high margins and regulatory drivers We were leaders in dry testing, and now we’re establishing ourselves in wet testing."
The acquisition of Global Vision in 2025 reinforced Noventis’s position in the wet testing space. The company's products sit within fire pumps that require frequent testing, further expanding its product offering.
Technology has been central to Noventis’s M&A strategy. “Inflexion encouraged us to build a robust in-house technological capability, hiring experts in R&D, engineering, and product management, all with software backgrounds. This skillset gives us credibility when speaking to acquisition targets," says Robert. "They see our technological experience and it helps get deals over the line."
Indeed, the technological focus has enabled Noventis to quickly digitise acquired businesses, improving their offerings and scaling their reach. For example, when the company acquired Hose Monster, it rapidly rolled out a ‘version 2” of the company’s extant SaaS model within just a few months, enhancing its service proposition.
Bright future
Looking ahead, Noventis plans to continue its M&A journey by building a broader test and measurement portfolio business, potentially expanding beyond fire safety but always targeting niche, regulatory-driven markets.
Currently assessing a number of opportunities in the UK and Germany, Noventis may again lean heavily on Inflexion’s brand, network, and expertise. "We’ve built a strong, self-sufficient team, though Inflexion’s experience may be critical for more sizeable targets," Robert concedes.
Ultimately, the partnership with Inflexion has driven double-digit growth and a series of successful acquisitions, with Noventis firmly positioning itself as a leader in its field.
