NSI acquires EPSO: a commercial cleaning acquisition takes a national network into the Toulouse area

NSI Groupe: the northern French consolidator of the commercial cleaning sector

Founded in 2012 by Romain Tellier, then aged 24, and based in Marly, near Valenciennes in the Nord department, NSI Groupe has grown in commercial cleaning of business premises and multi-service facilities work for companies and public bodies. The privately held group generated EUR 80m in revenue in 2025 with nearly 5,000 employees and around 25 locations across France — the 21st-largest cleaning company in the country, with some twenty acquisitions in six years. Its strategy is set out in its published Ambition 2030 plan — EUR 150m in revenue and a place in the French top 10 — with stated milestones: EUR 100m from 2026, the top 15 that same year and the top 10 in 2028, with a preference for acquiring businesses whose owner-manager is retiring.

EPSO: the leading commercial cleaning company in the Toulouse area

Based in Pechbonnieu, on the edge of Toulouse in the Haute-Garonne department, EPSO Multi-Services has established itself in about ten years as a leading cleaning company in the Toulouse area — cleaning business premises from offices to medical practices and from cleanrooms to retail stores, complemented by grounds maintenance. Its published figures point to a solid model: EUR 6.5m in revenue in 2025, 500 business clients — mainly office-based —, more than 600 sites maintained by 400 employees, an efficient digitalised organisation, ISO 9001 certification obtained in 2021 and an approach that stands out in the sector: one of the first French cleaning companies to adopt the status of Entreprise à mission (a French legal status for purpose-driven companies). Continuity is set out in the press release: Fabien Darolles, EPSO's founder and chairman, stays at the helm of the Toulouse branch and runs it within the group.

What the press said about the acquisition

The deal, announced at the end of April 2026, was covered by the cleaning industry's trade press and by the business press:

Why this cleaning company acquisition, and why this target

For NSI Groupe, the issue is geographic coverage: in commercial cleaning, large office-based clients award multi-site contracts nationwide, and every region where a provider is missing is a market it cannot serve. The group's published plan — Ambition 2030, with its EUR 150m revenue target and a place in the French top 10 — advances region by region: western France with GPNI at the end of 2025, Normandy with RM Propreté in January, and now the Toulouse area in the south-west with EPSO, which brings the interim milestone of EUR 100m during 2026 within reach. “We are two years ahead of this trajectory,” its founder Romain Tellier told Le Journal des Entreprises ahead of the deal — the roadmap this acquisition delivers, at the group's pace of some twenty acquisitions in six years.

On the target side, EPSO had exactly the profile of a benchmark acquisition: a portfolio whose structure creates the value — 500 mainly office-based clients, more than 600 sites, the recurring nature of cleaning contracts —, an organisation that can be handed over — experienced on-the-ground management, a digitalised organisation that is rare in the sector, financial fundamentals the press release describes as solid —, and verifiable quality markers, from ISO 9001 certification to its pioneering Entreprise à mission status. What matters most is the published continuity: founder Fabien Darolles remains head of the branch — in a business where client relationships and knowledge of the sites rest with people, this ensures that the value acquired is the value that stays.

French commercial cleaning is consolidating as founders hand over their businesses

This deal illustrates the reshaping of a quintessentially labour-intensive sector: French commercial cleaning — hundreds of thousands of employees, thousands of regional SMEs — is consolidating under two pressures: clients that are moving their multi-site contracts to national providers, and owner demographics, as founders from the 1990s and 2000s reach the age of succession. The emerging consolidators have understood this: growth here is bought region by region, by acquiring established firms with their teams and client portfolios — and buying a business when its owner-manager retires, which the buyer in this deal publicly cites as its preferred route, has become the dominant pattern in the market.

The deal also shows what well-run consolidation preserves: a domestic consolidation — from northern France to the Toulouse area — in which the target keeps its founder at the helm, its 400 employees and its pioneering Entreprise à mission identity in cleaning; a group that changes scale — nearly 5,000 employees, around 25 locations, the EUR 100m milestone in sight during 2026 — without changing its method of gradually integrating some twenty acquisitions in six years; and a sector where acquisitive growth is also about jobs: every successful handover secures hundreds of employment contracts and continuity of service across hundreds of sites.

Collaboration Capital's added value as buy-side adviser on this acquisition

On this deal, Collaboration Capital acted as buy-side adviser. A consolidation in commercial cleaning plays out in four stages — and the nature of the asset, recurring contracts delivered by field teams, shapes each of them.