Pall Mall Support Services has completed its acquisition of Compass Cleaning, a deal which it says puts it in the top 5 UK cleaning companies with over 11,000 staff and turnover doubled to £75m. Pall Mall also becomes market leader in retail cleaning.

This is the first major deal under Pall Mall’s dual strategy of organic growth and acquisition. MD David Woods said: "Acquiring Compass is in line with our strategic aim to become the UK's fastest growing provider of support services. Compass was the ideal choice - the industry sector of their clients perfectly complements ours. We can widen their client base while strengthening our own presence in the very important retail sector and of course our geographic coverage is improved."

The Compass name will survive as a separate division and the company's founder Paul Elliott will join the Pall Mall main board. Pall Mall's clients include Nokia, Shell, HSBC, Centrica and Railtrack. The Compass retail client portfolio includes Asda, J Sainsbury, Kwiksave, M&S, Somerfield and Tesco.

Richard Byatt