Michael, 53, joins OCU Group Ltd 1st January 2022 from EG Group (Euro Garages), one of the UK’s largest operators of petrol stations.
At EG Group, owned by the Issa brothers, who recently took over the Asda supermarket group, he helped grow revenues to more than £20bn, firstly as chief financial officer and latterly as chief strategy officer.
He joined EG from Ausurus, parent company of European Metal Recycling, where he was chief financial officer. Before that, he had finance roles in the Caudwell Group and HomeServe.
At OCU Group he will also be reporting to brothers – founders Tim and Tom O’Connor, who have both recently turned 60. They will remain in the business in the capacity of chairman and chief operating officer respectively.
Michael Hughes will work with an executive team also comprising executive director John McVeigh (Instalcom) and managing directors, Adrian O’Sullivan (O’Connor Utilities) and Vince Bowler (Instalcom).
OCU Group turned over £206m in the year to 30th April 2020 – with contributions of £88m from Instalcom and £125m from O’Connor Utilities – and made a pre-tax profit of £18.3m.
Despite the challenges of the Covid pandemic, the business has continue to grow in the past 18 months. With its core markets of telecoms, power and multi utilities all buoyant, it is expecting to turn over approximately £300m next year.
Tim O’Connor said: “ Michael has a proven track record in developing and executing growth strategies across a number of industries, and we believe Michael will work well with our existing management teams in supporting our future development and ambitious growth plans”.
Michael Hughes added: “There are significant growth opportunities within the utility services sector and OCU Group Ltd, with its operational strengths and service focus, is very well-positioned to capitalise on these.”
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