The Judges Approach

Be Respectful. Be Trustworthy. Be Disciplined.

The company doctor

David Cicurel spent three decades as a turnaround specialist — a “company doctor” fixing broken businesses across France, Switzerland, and the United States. At 53, he pivoted. Instead of rescuing companies, he would build one.

The insight from all those years of repair work: most companies break themselves through complexity, interference, and bureaucratic overhead. The solution was to build something that couldn’t break in those ways.

Judges Scientific, founded in 2002 and listed in 2003, has returned roughly 100x since IPO. The company acquires scientific instrument manufacturers — niche businesses making specialised equipment for laboratories, research institutions, and industrial testing. Twenty-five acquisitions over twenty years, each integrated the same way: not at all.

Six people at headquarters

Judges runs 25 operating companies with a head office of six people. The ratio is the most extreme among serial acquirers.

Mark Lavelle, the COO: “We believe in letting our businesses focus on their specific niche, which means that they can respond much faster to market change, without having to refer small approval requests up through layers of uncomprehending bureaucracy.”

When asked about centralising purchasing to capture synergies, Lavelle’s response was blunt: “No; I don’t believe in that at all. In fact, the opposite. What you might gain in efficiencies, you lose in entrepreneurship and ownership.”

Each acquisition keeps its name, its management, its culture. The managing directors run their businesses as if they still owned them — because the philosophy assumes they know better than anyone at headquarters ever could.

Discipline on price

Judges pays an average of 4.8x EBIT for acquisitions — roughly half what private equity or strategic acquirers typically offer. Why do sellers accept?

The answer reveals the model. Founders sell to Judges because the company takes a hands-off approach with no cost cuts, no synergies, no intervention in how the business runs. For owners who built something over decades, preserving the culture matters more than maximising the sale price.

Cicurel on what he’s learned about acquisitions: “Be Respectful. Be Trustworthy. Be Disciplined.”

The discipline shows in the numbers. Judges has a pipeline of over 2,000 potential targets — privately held scientific instrument companies in the UK, most of them global leaders in tiny markets. About 100 become available each year. Judges buys one or two. The patience required is uncomfortable, but paying 4.8x instead of 8x compounds dramatically over twenty years.

Niche within a niche

Scientific instruments is already a niche. Judges goes further, acquiring businesses that dominate micro-categories: geotechnical testing equipment, fire testing systems, cryogenic sample handling, neuroscience research tools.

Each subsidiary exports 85% or more of its output. The UK manufacturing base serves global demand — universities, government laboratories, industrial R&D centres. The markets are too small for large competitors to bother with. The equipment is too specialised for customers to switch easily.

Cicurel: “The companies we buy are all market leaders who have already proved they can perform, so the last thing we would do is to rebrand them or make big changes to their team; we want them to keep their identity and their passion for what they do.”

What the turnaround specialist built

Cicurel is stepping back in 2026, moving from CEO to Chairman while Tim Prestidge — previously at Halma and Renishaw — takes over operations. The transition comes after two decades of compounding.

The track record: 25% annual returns since IPO, a 100-bagger for early shareholders, organic EBIT growth of 9% annually, return on invested capital consistently above 30%, and dividends growing at 23% per year with a policy of minimum 10% annual increases.

When asked to describe himself in one word, Cicurel chose “Disciplined.”

From someone who spent thirty years watching companies destroy themselves through complexity, the lesson was clear: simplicity compounds. Six people at headquarters, complete autonomy for subsidiaries, and the discipline to pay 4.8x when others pay 8x.

The opposite of what breaks companies.

Connects to Library: Process Power · Switching Costs · Optionality

See also: The Halma Discipline — A larger UK compounder with more structure but similar philosophy. The Lifco Way — The Swedish equivalent: radical decentralisation, permanent ownership.