Category Archives: Business Reports

Business, Business Investment, Business News, Business Reports, Cardiff, Cardiff News, Industry News, Industry Press Releases, Investment, Investment News, News

GS Verde Group admitted to secondary market platform JP Jenkins

GS Verde Group Limited shares now trading at JP Jenkins.

9th January 2024 – Shares in the GS Verde Group (www.gsverde.group) have been admitted to trade on JP Jenkins share dealing platform. The GS Verde Group is headquartered at The Maltings, East Tyndall Street, Cardiff, with additional offices in Bristol and Dublin, and is registered as a company in England and Wales under Companies House, company number 15101725.

The completion of the seven-figure raise gives the Group a £9m post-money valuation on the JP Jenkins platform, which is the UK’s oldest secondary market and has provided a marketplace for share trading for established household brands such as Dyson and Weetabix as well as football clubs such as Arsenal and Manchester City.

The GS Verde Group is a multi-discipline M&A advisory business advising businesses on corporate transactions such as business sales (including Trade Sale, Management Buy-Out and Employee Ownership structures), acquisitions, investment raises and corporate re-organisations.

Through its multi-discipline structure, the business combines Law, Finance, Tax and Communications to provide a ‘one team’ advisory support to businesses.

The award-winning business has experienced fast growth through both strategic acquisitions and organic demand.   With offices in Cardiff, Bristol and Dublin, the Group employs c.90 staff across a range of professional and support disciplines.

Having won accolades as leading Dealmakers in 2022 and 2023, the business has proven demand for the ‘one team’ offering, and is looking to accelerate its growth nationally and internationally, through further strategic acquisitions, as well as investment in technology by further developing its proprietary software platform AR:Deals.

JP Jenkins is a liquidity venue for unlisted or unquoted assets in companies, enabling shareholders and prospective investors to buy and sell equity on a matched bargain basis. JP Jenkins is a trading name of InfinitX Limited an Appointed Representative of Prosper Capital LLP (FRN950991).

Shareholders wishing to trade these securities can do so through their stockbroker. Trades will be conducted at a level that JP Jenkins is able to match a willing seller and a willing buyer. Trades can be conducted, and limits can be accepted, during normal business hours. Shareholders or potential investors can place limits via their existing UK-regulated stockbroker.

The indicative pricing for the ordinary shares (ISIN: GB00BNTZFL29), as well as the transaction history, will be available on the JP Jenkins website at https://jpjenkins.com/company/gs-verde-group/

Veronika Oswald, Commercial Director of J P Jenkins said: “At JP Jenkins corporate advisors are a core part of our ecosystem in supporting private companies in liquidity and secondary market solutions. GS Verde’s admission demonstrates how our platform can not only support growth companies, but in turn support a multi-discipline M&A advisory business such as GS Verde in their own growth ambitions too. We are delighted to be able to support GS Verde with their own liquidity solution from today.”

Nigel Greenaway, Co-Founder and CEO of GS Verde Group said: “We are delighted to be trading on the prestigious JP Jenkins platform, joining such a wealth of household names in doing so.   

 

There has been overwhelming interest in our business, and this step to join the secondary market, allowing private investment into our business is a milestone step in our journey.  The investment will allow us to grow through strategic acquisition in certain areas of the UK, as well as to add firepower to our dealmaking teams in Wales, the Southwest of England and Ireland.   We can also accelerate our investment into AR:Deals, GS Verde’s own proprietary technology.”

For further information, please contact:

J P Jenkins Ltd.          

Veronika Oswald

Director           +44 (0)20 7469 0937

GS Verde Group Limited

Matthew Sutton

Company Secretary / Director       +44 (0)3330 107 8498

Business, Business News, Business Reports, Business Research, Customer Experience, E-Commerce, ECommerce, Industry News, Industry Press Releases, Logistics, Logistics Tech, London, London News, News, Retail, Retail & E-commerce, South East, South East England News, Supply Chain

Point of no return: 89% of consumers identify returns as priority for ecommerce retailers

  • 81% of consumers would write off a retailer if they saw issues with return process
  • 61% say easy returns result in exchanges over refund

London UK; 1st February 2022: 89% of consumers identify ease of returns as top priority when purchasing online. That’s according to new data from delivery experience platform Sorted, which found that retailers who get the returns process right will reap the most consumer loyalty.

The survey, consisting of 2,000 UK respondents, found that those with strong returns processes in place will also see a return on investment, with 61% saying they would be more likely to exchange a product bought online than get a refund if exchanging was made simpler.

Adversely, 81% say they would avoid ordering from an online retailer if they saw issues with their return process, a concern for retailers when 29% of consumers claim to have had an unsatisfactory returns experience in the last 12 months. The data also revealed that 44% would not re-order from an online retailer if they had experienced issues with their return process, and 36% would be reluctant to reorder from those retailers failing to provide clear returns details.

The need for seamless returns

The research also demonstrated a real hunger for proactive communications, with 77% saying that getting timely updates on the progress of their return, refund or exchange would make them more likely to purchase from that retailer again. Additionally, a quick and simple refund process (42%) and the ability to return via a local shop or a convenient location (26%) was revealed as crucial for customers.

Consumer expectations were also identified, with respondents saying they are more likely to be lenient with smaller retailers when it comes to returns. Alternatively, over nine in ten believe it is important for large corporate retailers to have a seamless returns process (94%).

The findings come at a time when ecommerce continues to soar, following a trend that has polarised retail since the onset of the pandemic. Shipping volumes through the SortedREACT platform increased by 429% during peak season (October to December 2021 vs the same period in 2020), meaning UK retailers have reached a critical point with the delivery and returns experiences they offer to consumers.

“In the aftermath of the Christmas peak, retailers are going to be dealing with an influx of returns. However, at every opportunity, a refund could become an exchange. Those who fail to offer quick and convenient ecommerce experiences will no doubt suffer in this competitive landscape,” shares Carmen Carey, CEO of Sorted.

“Retailers must learn that they can’t simply stop the brand experience the very moment an order reaches the customer’s door, but ensure a seamless process is carried right through the customer journey. With returns now a major point of differentiation for brands, retailers – big and small – must invest in the full post-purchase journey in order to both attract and retain the modern customer.”

Business Reports, Law, News, Wales News

Greenaway Scott named Wales’ most active M&A advisors of 2019.

Greenaway Scott has been named the most active legal firm for mergers and acquisition work in Wales during 2019 in the review of the year published by Experian MarketIQ.

The Experian Market IQ Report looks at UK, European and Global M&A activity and corporate finance research. The report tracks deal activity throughout the year.

The team at Greenaway Scott has worked on several of the regions highest profile transactions in the last 12 months including the recently announced merger between the private equity backed Amberon Group and Forest Traffic, which resulted in the creation of a £90m turnover business with 1,000 people employed within it.

High profile transactions of 2019 included advisory work on significant management buyouts at S3 Advertising, Ligtas risk management and the M&M Medical Group. The year also saw the team at Greenaway Scott work on a number of seven figure disposals within the telecom sector and acquisition work including projects such as Turners Coachway and the George Ware Morris 1000 restoration centre.

Greenaway Scott is part of the multi-discipline GS Verde Group, which is unique in Wales with an advisory team that is able to handle the legal aspects of mergers and acquisitions and also the corporate finance aspects of any transaction via Verde Corporate Finance, which is also a company within the GS Verde Group. In addition to Greenaway Scott ranking 1st in the list produced by Experian MarketIQ, Verde Corporate Finance was ranked the 5th most active financial team.

Nigel Greenaway, director at Greenaway Scott, reflected on the past year and how merger and acquisition activity has performed and said “We were delighted to be recognised as the most active business advising on mergers and acquisitions in Wales by Experian MarketIQ and we are looking to maintain that level of activity in 2020 and beyond as we develop and expand our team”.

Experian MarketIQ highlighted that “overall, it was a positive year for Welsh dealmakers, with 218 deals announced for a consideration of just under £1.2bn; up in both volume and value from 2018, when 212 transactions were recorded with an aggregate consideration of £700m. Wales contributed to 3.2% of the total number of transactions recorded in the UK in 2019, while contributing almost 0.6% to their total value.”

Greenaway Scott and the GS Verde Group have offices in Cardiff, Bristol and Pembroke Dock and employ 40 members of staff across its various specialist teams. The firm was recognised as one of the fastest growing businesses in Wales in the Fast Growth 50 2019.

Brexit, Business Investment, Business Reports

Business confidence falls further in Q3 amid continuing Brexit uncertainty

Following a brief respite at Q2 when business confidence held firm, the Savanta Business Confidence Index (formerly the Charterhouse Business Confidence Index) resumed its downward trend during Q3, reaching a new 6-year low of 45.

Larger businesses with annual sales above £1m continue to be the most confident group. However, despite a rally at Q2 that saw confidence increase by 4 points to 51, confidence among larger organisations slipped again at Q3 by 2 points t0 49.

Moreover, confidence among smaller established businesses, who represent the vast majority of enterprises by number, fell 3 points to finish Q3 at 44.

New start-ups remain the least confident segment on 43, although fledgling businesses nevertheless managed to retain their score from Q2.

In terms of geographic location, confidence decreased in 5 out of the 6 regions. This was most notable in Wales/South West and Scotland who recorded falls of 6 points and 4 points respectively to end Q3 as the two least confident regions. The 4-point fall in Scotland in particular resulted in an index score of just 38, an exceptionally low score even after taking account of the lower confidence levels usually seen in Scotland.

The most ‘optimistic’ regions are London and the North/North West, both on 47. Nevertheless, an index score of less than 50 means more businesses in both regions are pessimistic rather than optimistic about the current state of the economy.

Industry sector continues to be a stronger differentiator of sentiment than region, both in terms of the size of the quarterly shifts within a given sector and the degree of variation from one sector to another.

At Q3 confidence fell in 7 of the 9 sectors, with the biggest falls occurring in Transport (down 11 points to 42), Education (down 8 to 40) and Other Services (down 7 to 45).

The two sectors to record gains, 2 points in both cases, were Construction and Wholesale who ended the quarter with scores of 48 and 47 respectively.

In terms of age of business owners, the picture has turned on its head, with the under 35s being replaced by the 65+ group as the most confident. This follows a fall of 5 points among the youngest age group to 46 and a 2-point gain among the over 64s to 48.

Commenting on the findings Mark Dennis, Director of Savanta, said

“With uncertainty over Brexit continuing throughout quarter 3 it was too much to expect the quarter 2 plateau to be anything more than a temporary phenomenon. The results in quarter 4 will no doubt be heavily influenced by developments over the coming days which will determine whether the UK formally withdraws at the end of October or whether the uncertainty is set to continue with an extended deadline and potentially an accompanying General Election.”

Quarter 3 findings are from Savanta’s MarketVue Business Confidence programme (formerly the Charterhouse Business Confidence Survey), conducted among 3,144 British businesses from start-ups to companies with £1bn turnover, surveyed from 1st July to 19th September 2019. Indices are mean scores based on a scale of ‘extremely positive’ (100), ‘fairly positive’ (75), ‘neither positive nor negative’ (50), ‘fairly negative’ (25) and ‘extremely negative’ (0).

For more information please visit https://savanta.com

Business Reports, Retail

Ethical sports clothing brand CONTRA celebrates fantastic first year of sales

One year on from its first online sale, ethical and inclusive sports clothing brand CONTRA, creation of parkrun founder, Paul Sinton-Hewitt CBE, is celebrating after receiving over 7,000 orders.

The CONTRA online store was launched this week a year ago, with the first sale received that day. Since then, the website has seen over 600,000 visits, with 7,225 orders from over 6,000 customers, generating over £315,000 in revenue.

The CONTRA range includes base layers, t-shirts, tights, capri pants and hoodies in a variety of colours and designs, with every item available in 10 sizes (from XXS to 5XL) for both men and women. 
CONTRA aims to challenge the established sportswear industry. The brand is focussed on creating quality sports kit manufactured in European factories that pay staff fair wages, in colours that don’t promote gender stereotyping with inclusive size ranges.  All of the profit goes towards supporting parkrun in its mission to create a healthier and happier planet. In the first year, CONTRA has generated over £70,000 in profit for parkrun. 

Paul Sinton-Hewitt CBE, Founder of CONTRA and parkrun, said:

“Something like CONTRA has never been done before, and everything suggested that it couldn’t be done – that you can’t create a clothing brand with all of the values we are passionate about and sell it at a reasonable price. But we are here to prove otherwise.” 

“As the figures demonstrate, CONTRA has been a massive success in its first year of online trading, and it goes to show that its values, such as making clothing from high quality material, ensuring ethical practices throughout the process and delivering sportswear that supports and fits in with the everyday person, is something its customers also strongly believe in.” 

parkrun, which celebrates 15 years this October, provides free, five kilometre timed events that take place every Saturday morning and 2k events for children on a Sunday morning, at nearly 2,000 locations in 21 different countries around the world.  By purchasing clothing from CONTRA, customers are helping to support the parkrun movement and ensuring it remains free, for everyone, forever.

Business Reports

Rapiscan® Systems Recognized for Excellence in Customer Service

Rapiscan® Systems, a leading global supplier of security inspection technology, today announced that its Customer Experience team has been recognized for excellence in service by the Customer Relationship Management Institute (CRMI) with a prestigious Certified CEM Professional (CEMPRO) Award.

Achievement of this award certifies that Rapiscan Systems has met rigorous employee-customer relationship training requirements and has demonstrated consistent efforts to exceed customer expectations.

Rapiscan Systems has also been selected as a finalist in two categories of CRMI’s 2019 eCommerce Awards, for Rapiscan’s brand-new webstore eCommerce site: store.rapiscan.com.

Rapiscan’s webstore was designed to enhance the customer journey and the convenience of mobile access. In August the eCommerce Awards announced that Rapiscan was recognized as a finalist for Best B2B eCommerce and Best Innovation in eCommerce payment.

“Our sales and customer engagement teams have made improving the customer journey a significant priority, and a mission that aligns with our core values,” said Ted Alston, Sr VP, Global Customer Experience at Rapiscan Systems.

“We have made the strategic investment into initiatives that will benefit our customers, such as extra training for our Customer Experience team and an advanced eCommerce platform supporting our goal of excellence in service. Recognition from industry organizations is a testament to the hard work and dedication of this incredible team. We are very proud of these accomplishments and strive to continue improving the customer experience in the future.”

For more information on Rapiscan® Systems, please visit  https://www.rapiscansystems.com/en/.

Brexit, Business Reports

Businesses looking to stockpile as Brexit uncertainty looms

As the Brexit deadline approaches, a new survey commissioned by Coupa Software has revealed that, while the majority (96 per cent) of UK senior finance decision makers in large companies have been preparing for Brexit for the past year, the work to become post-Brexit ready is still an uphill battle. Respondents cited supplier relationships and spend visibility as top focus areas.

Of the 253 senior finance decision makers surveyed, 54 per cent cited supplier relationships as the part of their business most likely to be impacted by Brexit, above disruption with profits, customer relationships, and payroll. Furthermore, 51 percent of respondents said that on the day of Brexit, they expect to renegotiate contracts with their suppliers to return to business as usual. 

The survey also found that going into Brexit, nearly two-thirds of finance decision makers (63 per cent) said they lack complete visibility into their business spend, and 62 per cent said that they are not very confident in their company’s spend decisions. Their views on stockpiling are evidence of this – nearly 66 per cent say they feel stockpiling is an effective precaution for businesses in uncertain economies.

“In today’s environment, it’s imperative that businesses have the visibility and control they need to respond quickly amid economic uncertainty, and that’s no more apparent than what UK businesses face with Brexit,”

said Rob Bernshteyn, chairman and CEO of Coupa.

“Having modern technologies will help companies navigate these changes by empowering them to establish the right supplier relationships and spend smarter every day.”

Business Investment, Business Reports

Angel Investment Network reports strong annual revenue growth

Angel Investment Network (AIN), the world’s largest online angel investment platform, has announced strong growth, with annual revenues up 9.4% year on year and a record number of deals for the broking business. AIN connects startups with angel investors and now has more than a million users in total on the platform.

AIN received over 100,000 pitches in the past year from entrepreneurs across the globe, with the figure doubling over the last two years. Alongside existing markets there has been a rapid growth of startups coming from emerging markets. Meanwhile investors registering on the site have surged nearly 40% year on year, now standing at more than 200,000 registered business angels.

Alongside the online platform, AIN also runs a successful broking division, which has seen exceptional growth in the past 12 months. Revenues have increased by 22% as demand for the team’s expertise increases. AIN has been involved in several significant raises in the past 12 months for a variety of business. This includes eco-friendly baby product business Kit & Kin, fully customisable bio-polymer plastic company Teysha, and Pin Point, data science offering early cancer detection.

Despite ongoing uncertainty around Brexit and a global slowdown, AIN’s results reveal the buoyant startup culture both in the UK and internationally and the popularity for this method of financing.  The biggest demand among investors over the past year has been for software-based business, however food & beverage and property ventures are also seeing impressive growth. Fast growth worldwide markets include India, Canada and Australia.

Additionally AIN has been expanding into new areas including a property investment site, BrickTribe and an impact-driven online hub SeedTribe, catering for the increasing demand from investors for businesses with sustainability at their core.

According to AIN co-founder Mike Lebus:

“AIN is the largest network connecting angel investors with startups, and we continue to see strong growth with investors keen to connect to our wide pool of early-stage businesses. We reflect a strong, growing and resilient worldwide startup culture which has now taken root in every continent of the world. We are particularly encouraged by the performance of our broking business as more and more investors are coming to us for access to high quality dealflow.”

He continues:

“We continue to operate a lean and agile business model and we are able to launch new products to respond to the needs of our users. This includes our two new standalone platforms, BrickTribe and SeedTribe, which we built to fulfil demand that we were receiving from our investors.”

Business Reports, FInance

Millennials’ needs are changing the face of the banking industry

A new report reveals that by 2020 half of all payment service providers will be digital only, following a 51% growth spurt of e-money firms between 2017 – 2018.

The report, The UK Fintech Revolution –comes from leading financial services and IT recruiter Robert Walters and market analysis experts Vacancy Soft – and reveals that banking technology is evolving rapidly to accommodate a mobile world.

Ollie Sexton, Principal at Robert Walters said:

“Technology has transformed the way we do pretty much everything – from shopping to socialising – and the emergence of fintech start-ups and their clever use of technology has made it easier for people to invest, make payments and even get a loan.

“For millennials who grew up with mobile devices this is particularly appealing because they want to conduct financial transactions the same way they would share pictures or apply for a job.

“The pace of change has been so rapid over the past five years that the perception of digital banking has shifted from an ‘option’ to a ‘requirement.”

Traditional Banks Falling Behind

James Murray, Director of Financial Services said:

“The 2008 global financial crisis resulted in employment within the banking industry declining by 7% (100,000 people).

“This led to a period of stifled innovation, with banks understandably focussing on their balance sheets and profitability.

“This contraction in the market created the vacuum to enable the people with the expertise to develop the fintech business models that had yet to be created within the banks themselves.

“Arguably it is only now, with the rise of the fintech start-ups, that the banking sector has woken up and started to adapt to the new paradigm.

“As a result, IT is now constituting over 30% of professional roles in the sector, up from 24% in 2017, with this projected to increase further.”

In 2018 fintech was the fastest growing sector in the UK – with job creation increasing by 61% in London and by 18% in regions outside of London, almost 80% across the UK.

This compares with just 17% job creation for the banking and financial services sector across the whole of the UK between 2017 – 18.

Of the 29 fintech unicorns* worldwide (*companies worth more than $1 billion), nine are in San Francisco, while seven are housed in the UK.

In fact, the UK’s fintech ‘unicorns’ had a combined revenue growth of 130% in the last 12 months – in monetary terms this was an increase from £77.1m to £177.6m revenue.

Blurring Lines

Tom Chambers, Manager of Advanced Analytics and Engineering at Robert Walters said:

“The rise of smartphones and 4G has significantly reduced barriers to entry for new players. The ‘fintech unicorns’ are spearheading innovation through successfully digitising payments, peer-to-peer (P2P) finance and fund transfer processes.

“As a result, incumbents in the banking sector find they are having to adapt to this wave of innovation to compete with the likes of Funding Circle, Transferwise and Revolut.

“With this in mind, banks are now utilising the latest technologies to streamline, resulting in a new wave of change, from closing branches (3000 have closed down since 2015) to mobile-based payments.

“This means is that now the line between fintech and traditional banking is becoming increasingly blurred, especially given the fact a fintech company is now able to get an EU banking license – allowing them to guarantee customer deposits.”

“Currently, fintech is still in the explosive phase. However, as well as embracing technology, it’s possible that established banks could scope the fintech market for acquisition opportunities and increase segmentation of their core services to gain back competitive advantage.”

The full report can be downloaded here.