Focus Dinner with Neil Armstrong, Fastflow Group

Aged 32 and already MD of Alfred McAlpine’s £170m infrastructure business, many people wondered why Neil Armstrong decided to take the giant leap out of comfort and security to put everything on the line to own and run his own utility services business.

Neil saw an opportunity, sensed it was the right time and made the brave decision to quit so he could pursue a management buy-in of Fastflow from Northumbrian Water. In 2005 he took sole ownership of the £20m turnover business and its 245 staff.

Pro-active, professional, focused and, above all else, socially responsible, Fastflow is now a multi-award winning North East based, UK success story.

Starting up a Warrington based gas transmission business in 2012, acquiring a London and Oxford based social housing maintenance business in 2014 and a Durham affordable housing specialist in 2018, what started out as Fastflow Pipeline Services (FPS) has grown to become a group of companies with a diverse offering and a national footprint. Fastflow provides essential services to the owners of critical assets. The group is positioned in attractive niches within large and expanding markets, customers include National Grid, Northumbrian Water, Home Group, Karbon Homes and many other large scale asset owners.

Neil Armstrong is the leader of the group, however, each of the businesses has a strong standalone management team, exhibiting real quality, depth and motivation.

Providing work for over 800 people, with last year’s revenues at £98m and profits once again over £10m, Fastflow received funding from London based Elysian Capital to support its stellar growth plans. Neil and his team are this year aiming to achieve record growth with targeted revenues around £140m.

With offices in Oxford, London, Reading and Warrington and Durham, Neil is on a mission to enhance the efficiency of his customers’ assets and to contribute positively to the communities within which Fastflow operate.

EXPLORE - how Fastflow remains a great place to work while the Group scales exponentially.

LEARN - what’s next for this North East based success story.

GAIN - an understanding of a business where service, safety and quality of operation are at the very heart.