Mark Cooper, Founder and Chairman of Anabas, has sold the business to Armonia, a French facilities management provider. Anabas was set up by Cooper in 2004.

The deal will allow Anabas to grow and be even more successful. It provides increased financial strength while Anabas colleagues will benefit from increased opportunities for training, career development and promotion. The move also provides EMEA service delivery for Anabas’s customers which require it and delivers increased service specialisms in areas where Anabas doesn’t currently have an offering.

Managing Director Alistair Craig is retaining his shareholding and will remain with the business, together with the rest of the senior management team. The Anabas brand will also stay. Mark Cooper will have no further involvement in the company.

Armonia was set up in 1974 by Patrick Thélot, who is now the organisation’s chairman. The company has 16,000 employees, largely in France but also in Spain, Benelux, the Middle East and North Africa. They provide a range of FM services to organisations including Société Générale, Renault Digital, Hermes and Estée Lauder.

Alistair Craig, Managing Director of Anabas, said: “This is an exciting time for Anabas and I’m thrilled to work with Armonia to further improve our service delivery and expand our service offering to our customers. Our people will also benefit from this deal and I’m pleased to see a future where they can experience increased training and promotional opportunities.”

Mark Cooper, Founder and Chairman of Anabas, added: “We have been approached many times over the years but it’s never felt that Anabas’s customers and colleagues would benefit from a sale. I firmly believe that a company like Armonia, which shares our values and ethos, is the perfect organisation to take Anabas to the next level.” 

Guillaume Amar, Chief Executive Officer at Armonia, said: “We are committed to developing Anabas while keeping the company’s brand and culture and everything that makes it unique. Anabas is a perfect fit for us in terms of its approach, high standards of service and its focus on its people. We want people to feel proud of working for Armonia and are committed to a better quality of life at work. One of the values in our manifesto is to strive to make work a pleasure: the pleasure of welcoming, the pleasure of sharing and the pleasure of contributing. That feels similar to how Anabas operates.”