Calibre interview: Andy Thomis, Chief Executive, Cohort Group

From an idea to a £500 million publicly listed company, the Cohort Group has grown to fill a unique position within the defence ecosystem. Its structure allows its companies to punch above their weight in the difficult world of defence procurement, and it provides capabilities that complement the primes. Calibre Defence met with Andy Thomis, the Chief Executive of the Cohort Group and one of the original founders to learn more about the business and its path to success. 

Sit in enough round tables and meetings about the UK’s defence, and conversation will often turn to the subject of procurement. It’s rarely a positive experience, with industry and defence representatives airing their frustrations and challenges about the process. The fact is that some of those processes are there for a reason, and that is to make sure that the tax payer’s money is being spent responsibly and well. With this comes a certain level of risk aversion. Say you’re a new entrant to the defence market offering some wonderful, game changing technology, but you have no track record of delivering on large projects before. This may be enough to lose a contract in some cases, especially if that company’s bank will not back the project. This is just one of the areas where the Cohort Group, which consists of seven different defence companies, comes into the equation. Cohort aims to combine the speed and agility of small, innovative businesses with the financial strength and powerful market presence of a larger, publicly listed group.

“The concept is that each company operates with a high degree of independence. Our business directors have very clear decision making authority up to a certain financial level before they need to come and consult myself and the other executive director,” Andy Thomis told me from his office in Reading. “All of the businesses are self-contained in that there are no centralised functions. If they want a resource, they need to include it within the boundary of their own operations, their own profit and loss accounts,” he continued. Andy is one of two executive directors at the Cohort Group, the other being Simon Walther, and Nick Prest is non-executive Chairman of the Board. Together with Stanley Carter, Andy and Nick founded the Cohort Group in 2006, and have gone from strength-to-strength since. 

From the time of its foundation, Cohort’s strategy has included making strategic acquisitions, and as a result its portfolio has grown from the initial one operating business to today’s seven. Cohort also supports its businesses in making “bolt-in” acquisitions. For example, SEA (Systems Engineering & Assessment), a company that specialises in maritime systems both above and below the surface, completed its purchase of Canadian company JSK Naval Support (JSK) in 2021, which it now owns outright. . SEA had previously partnered with Kaycom with both owning a 50% share. Since then, SEA has won a £15.1 million contract from the Royal Canadian Navy for Torpedo Launcher Systems that will be fitted to the country’s River Class frigates, which are based on the UK’s Type 26. 

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“The reason for that is we feel it is best for the businesses to resource their own plans, based on their understanding of what their customers want,” Andy told me, adding that there is evidence supporting the idea that companies that are not reliant on a set of central services – think things like HR, finance, accounting etc – are more innovative and have a better esprit de corps. “While primes might be able to join their businesses together in different geometries, we provide more agility and more competitive costs without those overheads,” he said. 

All about cashflow

“You might ask, well why bother putting them together in a group? Well, in defence there are some things that are very difficult for a business to have. This might be payment management, performance bonds and so on. We have very strong banking relationships as a listed Group, you simply can’t do business in defence without those. One impact of this is that several of our businesses are operating contracts that are much larger than their annual revenue.” 

For example, SEA was awarded the Ancilia contract for the Royal Navy. Ancilia is a trainable decoy launcher designed to provide the next generation of passive protection for all of the Royal Navy’s surface vessels. That contract, awarded in 2024 was valued at £135 million. The company’s revenue was around £52 million at the time, according to the data website Endole. 

But what does this mean for Cohort’s businesses? And how does the overarching structure help companies like SEA secure such significant contracts? Back to Andy: “If you are a company with a small balance sheet, and a proven ability to do things well, but the lack of ability to do things at scale, then you need financing or you won’t get a contract.” Here, Cohort’s public listing and central relations with its banks and investors become key. “If our businesses were independent, they might be the best choice for the customer, but would struggle financially. This is because customers look for bank bonds that they can call down on if their advanced payment is not used properly, or if they don’t deliver as required,” Andy explained. “Banks won’t provide a bond like that to a small company unless it is cash-backed. That is why a group like ours, which has a strong bank balance, and can tap public markets, makes a lot of difference,” he continued.

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So, say for example that a company was given an advance payment of 10% to procure long-lead items and start work, but failed to deliver or delivered to a low quality. The customer – an MoD in this case – could ask the company’s bank to act as a guarantor for that money. In that case, the bank would immediately refund the advance payment, giving the customer some security and reassurance. This is seen as very important in large and complex defence programmes. And, as you can see from SEA’s financials, it may not have the track record or funds available to meet those kinds of obligations. But Cohort is valued at a little over £500 million, and has strong banking relationships that can be used to guarantee an advanced payment. 

How does the Cohort Group fit into the wider ecosystem?

“If you look at how we fit into the overall ecosystem, we are not going to attempt to provide the next nuclear submarine or 6th gen aircraft. The kind of structure you need to do that is different,” Andy said, reflecting on the Cohort Group and its role in the wider defence industry. 

“Instead, we work on mission systems, communications, and sensors, where it is much more about technology and the speed of response. We can see this in Ukraine where technology is introduced and then rapidly countered. We are structured to support this type of cycle, which means we fit nicely alongside the BAEs of this world, and are well-suited to provide the things that they cannot do so well”, Andy explained. 

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For reference, the seven businesses under the Cohort Group include Chess Dynamics, EID, ELAC SONAR, EM Solutions, MASS, MCL and SEA. ELAC Sonar is set to supply its Integrated Sonar Suite for the U212 Near Future Submarines (NFS) that are being procured for the Italian Navy as well as its Hunter 2.0 Hull Mounted Sonar for the Philippines’ three Del Pilar Class frigates, which are undergoing a modernisation. EM Solutions provides multi-channel satellite communications for ships, using a technology that enables the receiver to keep track of a satellite even in a rough sea. “This element is really important for uncrewed vessels because they tend to be smaller and so are less stable at sea,” Andy explained. EM Solutions is based in Australia, and secured a contract to provide its satcom solution to all six Australian frigates in 2023, as well as many of the country’s other surface warfare vessels. 

The businesses mostly provide solutions where there is little in the way of competition because they produce something that is unique in terms of capability. EM Solutions’ satcom is one example, Andy told me. 

As a wider company, the managing directors of the seven businesses meet every quarter and are required to submit annual plans to Andy and his team. “We minimise interference generally unless things are not going well, in which case we provide a higher level of support,” he said, adding that “we do give a clear indication of what we are looking for in terms of organic growth and incentivise our business leaders based upon that.” Cohort takes steps to ensure that the companies are not on a collision course and set to compete with each other over a major capability. They also provide an environment where the companies can work together, as is the case with Chess Dynamics and SEA working on Ancilia. Beyond that, the group’s businesses also cooperate with other companies. For instance, Chess Dynamics supplies the electro-optics for the Rheinmetall Skyranger air defence system, for example, which is expected to yield orders for up to 500 systems. 

What does the future hold for defence? 

Looking ahead, Andy sees a lot of opportunity around the world, an unfortunate result of worsening relations between NATO and NATO aligned states, and Russia. “Non-US NATO spending grew 19% last year, actual cash increases, that’s an increase in the money that was actually spent. We see similar increases in the Indo-Pacific, with Japan increasing its cash spent, and South East Asia is also an important region for us. That demand is driven significantly by the Chinese Navy and its plans to increase its carrier fleet as well as building new submarines at a startling rate and using them aggressively around the region. Incursions into territorial waters like in Japan and Australia.”

There are, as always, uncertainties: “We also have some very advanced technological development to do. For instance the development of sonars for the Italian submarines is extraordinarily complex with thousands of sensors, each system with a mass north of 40 tonnes. There are technical risks, which we have to take account of, but that is our bread and butter,” he said. 

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on January 8, 2026. The lead image shows Andy Thomis, Chief Executive of the Cohort Group. Credit: Cohort Group.