What we’re building
Grupo Cerne is being built to become the most enduring name in mechanical, electrical and plumbing in Portugal — one lasting group, assembled from good companies and kept for the long term.
I · The opening
Portugal runs on small companies. Family businesses are the larger part of the economy, yet most have no plan for the day the founder steps back, and few reach a third generation. Good companies — profitable, well run, respected in their towns — are closing or being broken up for want of a home.
II · What we’re assembling
We acquire established businesses in mechanical, electrical and plumbing — companies with real customers, skilled people, and a name that means something locally — and we bring them together into a single group built to last. The businesses we look for are profitable and established, typically with €300,000 to €5 million in annual earnings. No fund cycle. No forced exit.
III · The order we build in
We are not buying all of this at once, and we would rather say so plainly. The first company is in climate control or in electrical installation. Plumbing follows, then water, fire safety, security and lifts — trades that sit in the same buildings and answer to the same people, added as the group can look after them properly. Portugal first, and for a long time only Portugal.
An owner in any of these trades is worth talking to now. But if we are early for your trade, we would rather tell you that than take up your year.
IV · Why we hold
Many talk to owners; few are built to hold. Our experience is operating, not only financial, and the structure has no fund to wind up and no date by which we must sell. What we buy, we intend to keep — which is exactly what a careful owner wants to know before opening a conversation.
V · The horizon
We measure success in decades, not deal cycles. The aim is not to build something to sell — it is to build something that outlives us, and keeps the businesses inside it whole.