Tag Archives: Midlands

News

Post pandemic pivot: Four franchisees celebrate the first anniversaries of their new careers as Get Ahead regional directors

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns put millions of people on furlough. Whilst some returned to work, others faced uncertainty and the prospect of redundancy. Yet in the face of this economic crisis, a study by UHY, the international accountancy network, showed that there were 726,000 new businesses created in the UK in 2020 compared to just over 636,000 in 2019. Why? Because thousands of people, like Sarah Yandell, Sophie Birley-Brown, Emma Barratt and Louise Young took the opportunity to change their career paths and start their own businesses.

Sarah Yandell was put on furlough from her general manager role in a travel business and knew it was time to look for something new. After many years of commuting and managing business teams, she wanted to work flexibly and from home, yet still feel part of something. After weeks of searching, Sarah discovered Get Ahead and launched her Suffolk/Essex area in July 2020.

“A year on, and I absolutely know that buying my Get Ahead franchise was the right decision for me,” says Sarah. “The support from Rebecca and our wonderful team has been fantastic. Running my own business has definitely been a bigger learning curve than I realised. But I have learnt what to prioritise and how important it is to take time to build relationships with my most valuable contacts. Ongoing restrictions have made networking more difficult, but I am looking forward to getting to more face-to-face events over the next 12 months, delivering presentations and building partnerships with referral partners.”

Sophie Birley-Brown was put on furlough and subsequently made redundant from her recruitment company role in July 2020. “It was a worrying time,” Sophie says, “but I also knew that it could be a good opportunity to find something new. Once I discovered Get Ahead, it felt like a perfect fit. Sophie launched her Wirral & Cheshire West franchise in September 2020.

“There have been some fantastic highlights from the last 12 months. I have hosted my own FSB networking group. I signed up four new clients all from one client who was praising our services in her networking group. I’m also starting work with a national charity, who want to outsource all business and marketing support tasks to us on an ongoing basis, which is very exciting. Along the way, I have realised how important it is to maintain a healthy work/life balance. I now build time into my calendar to take time out for myself, so that I can really give my best for my business.”

Emma Barratt had always wanted to run her own business. But going it alone felt like recreating the wheel. During the pandemic, Emma had time to research franchising options, as she knew franchising would offer a tried-and-tested business model. She came across Get Ahead online and launched her East Midlands region in September 2020.

“Some people may think I was crazy to start a new business in the middle of the pandemic, but I have been pleasantly surprised,” Emma says. “I have really enjoyed getting to know so many different business owners and SMEs. Because of the wide variety of support services we offer at Get Ahead, no one day is the same. I love being able to say yes to helping make a business owner’s life easier, in almost any way they need it, from enquiry and diary management to a full social media marketing strategy, plus everything in between. With in-person business events returning, I am looking forward to exhibiting at local expos, meeting lots of new people and promoting Get Ahead East Midlands.”

Ealing-based Louise was made redundant from her Marketing Director role during COVID-19 and was delighted when she discovered Get Ahead on LinkedIn. She immediately saw the benefits of virtual assistant services for businesses facing the challenges of coronavirus and felt that the time was right to join a virtual agency like Get Ahead. She launched her West London franchise in November 2020.

“12 months down the line I feel confident that my business has a bright future ahead,” Louise says. “I have received some amazing feedback from clients who have genuinely seen the benefit of using a member of the Get Ahead team to support their business. At the same time, I now have space in my week to be able to spend time doing things that I love, regaining a work-life balance that’s often so hard to achieve.

Launching my business four days before a new lockdown wasn’t ideal, but this ended up being positive as it gave me time to get all the basics in place so that I was fully up and running in time for the gradual return to normality we’ve seen this year. I can’t wait to visit lots of local business expos over the first quarter of 2022 to kick-start the new year and drive my business forward.”

Despite the impact of the pandemic, Get Ahead welcomed a record number of new franchisees in 2020. Get Ahead founder and director Rebecca Newenham says, “2020 was a pivotal year for many people. I was privileged to meet Sarah, Sophie, Emma and Louise and help them find a new career path that would enable them to achieve their dreams of running their own business and take control of their own futures.

We have already opened up a further three new regions in 2021 in York and Harrogate, Oxford and our first international franchisee in Sydney, Australia. Alongside our existing regional directors in Berkshire & North Hants, East Midlands, Surrey, Leeds, Suffolk & Essex, West London, and Wirral & Cheshire West, we are well equipped to provide effective outsourced services to businesses across the UK.”

AI, News

The Robot Exchange secures £500k MEIF backing to drive robotic automation

The Robot Exchange has secured a significant £500k investment from leading private equity investment firm, Foresight Group, through the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (“MEIF”).

The Nottingham-based business supplies Robotic Process Automation (“RPA”) software and services to deliver efficiencies to businesses, helping them streamline and automate their processes via robotic infrastructure.

The funding will be used as growth capital, helping The Robot Exchange further innovate in the RPA sector – enabling greater investment in more technical solutions and increasing the volume of customers, markets and platforms that The Robot Exchange can serve.  The Company plans to create an additional five jobs in the near term.

The Robot Exchange focuses primarily on driving efficiencies in the UK enterprise market in a variety of market sectors such as financial services, the lettings industry and wealth management sector.

In light of the transaction, Andy Wallace, CEO of The Robot Exchange, comments: “We were looking for an investor that understood our need to continue to innovate while increasing our revenues. Our software as a service revenue structure around RPA is unusual, and I feel will be a key low-cost investment for many additional, and larger, clients across all vertical sectors.”

“Our Robotic Process Automation technology delivers rapid automation of manual and menial tasks, benefitting businesses and their customers, and we deliver a full return on investment for our clients within the first year, which is highly unusual for any tech project. The MEIF funding will no doubt help us expand this further as we grow our services and enhance our workforce.”

Ray Harris, Private Equity Director and Principal of MEIF at Foresight Group, added: “We’re very pleased to be backing The Robot Exchange as it continues to develop its software. A combination of a great product and management team within a sector that should see significant growth makes for a compelling investment proposition.”

Sajeeda Rose, Chief Executive at D2N2 LEP said: “I’m delighted to see the Midlands Engine Investment Fund supporting innovative and ambitious businesses within our region. With the increasing importance of automation, it’s great to see Robot Exchange getting the support it needs to grow and help drive our region’s economic growth. ”

The Robot Exchange appointed a deal team from Smith Cooper Corporate Finance, led by Dan Bowtell, to obtain growth funding and negotiate the transaction through to completion.

Dan Bowtell, Corporate Finance Partner at Smith Cooper, adds: “The funding attained from Foresight Group and MEIF will play a vital role in helping Andy and his team realise their growth ambitions, helping to digitise the way many businesses operate, boosting efficiency and streamlining operations.”

Legal advice was provided by Lipman Karas LLP.

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.

Accountancy & Accounts, News

“We’re emerging with better, more ingrained relationships with our clients” Accountancy & Business Advisory services firm Smith Cooper reflects on the last year

Smith Cooper work alongside businesses of all sizes, providing solutions to complex and challenging issues in fast-moving environments which demand a high level of technicality.

Headquartered in the Midlands, and operating on a national scale, Smith Cooper’s workforce has grown steadily in the last 5 years, by an average of 7.5% each year, whilst fiscal growth has exceeded 53% in the same period, mainly through organic growth.

The firm maintains a position as one of the UK’s top 50 Accountancy firms, currently ranked the 41st largest UK firm in the Accountancy Age Top 50+50 and holds the same spot in the Accountancy Daily Top 75 list.

James Bagley, Managing Partner at Smith Cooper comments “The last year has been a steep learning curve for many businesses, ourselves included, and through this period of exceptional challenge, we have learnt many lessons.”

“The pandemic has proved to be a defining period for so many businesses and encouraged us and many others to prioritise what matters most when it comes to business continuity. It has motivated businesses to build more structured and comprehensive approaches to crisis management, but to also reframe and unlock new opportunities.”

“The downtime we experienced in the first lockdown allowed us to accelerate some of our strategic changes which we will be announcing soon, as we look to continue on an upwards growth trajectory.”

Reflecting on the lessons learnt over the last year, David Nelson, Senior Partner at Smith Cooper adds “Whilst we have had to adapt and learn on our feet over the last 12 months, clients and prospective clients have looked to us for advice, guidance and support, and as a result we’re emerging from this period with better, more ingrained relationships with our clients.”

“We have witnessed a growth in new client numbers as a result, as many businesses felt they did not receive the support needed throughout the COVID-19 crisis – something we prioritised from the early stages of the lockdown.”

“Business confidence appears to be returning quickly and we’re seeing many of our clients re-engaging with pre-COVID-19 plans. We currently have a large number of new advisory projects on the go and look forward to helping our clients realise their ambitions.”

In regard to the firm’s 240+ strong workforce, David adds “Whilst the pandemic has no doubt changed the working landscape, we remain committed to our local presence and our centrally based offices as we believe keeping the team together physically is a key component of our success.”

As well as the primary Accountancy and Advisory organisation, the Smith Cooper Group consists of Smith Cooper System Partners, the Midlands’ leading Sage 200 Partner of the Year for the last 5 consecutive years, Infuse Technology, IT Managed Service Provider and Microsoft Gold Competency Partner, and Smith Cooper Independent Financial Services, an Independent Financial Solutions provider.

News

Experian report confirms resilience of UK’s M&A market as recovery looks to be moving in an upwards trajectory

Experian recently published their UK and Ireland 2020 M&A Review, outlining the resilience of the UK’s M&A market, with dealmakers seemingly quick to adapt to completing transactions in the COVID-19 era – a trend that we noted at Smith Cooper Corporate Finance (SCCF).

Deal making during 2020 was a very mixed bag with volumes down by 15% on 2019, but 79% up in terms of value – albeit driven by £120bn of big-ticket deals in November and December.

Sector played a big part too; technology, media and telecoms represented around 28% of deals but, save for brisk business in professional services, most sectors recorded lower volume – sometimes much lower – than in 2019.

“The recovery of M&A activity, although variable between sectors, began in May, gaining notable traction in late Q3 early Q4 – driven by the unpredictability of the pandemic, fears of adverse changes to capital gains tax, and steady demand for quality businesses from buyers, especially those with funding. As a result, annual transaction volumes were better than feared given the temporary stagnation earlier in the year” says John Farnsworth, Head of Corporate Finance at SCCF, which retained its Experian Financial adviser top-10 ranking for 2020, rising to 8th place.

“As ever, there have been good and bad sectors – although many businesses, even in sectors detrimentally affected by COVID-19, have restarted with spirit, fuelled by prospects of pent-up consumer demand following lockdown, low interest rates, easy finance and an early budget; and this has led to increased deal activity.”
Although the Midlands remained the busiest region outside of London and the South East, representing 14% of total UK deals by volume, its performance was worse than in most regions in 2020 – it registered a 17% fall in volume and, against the UK trend, a precipitous 57% drop in value compared to 2019.

Surprisingly, the most severe decline occurred in the small deals market, whilst large deal numbers soared by 23%. Contrary to this, our experience at SCCF was quite the opposite, as Dan Bowtell, Corporate Finance Partner at SCCF explains: “Although we at SCCF have seen fewer large transactions complete this year – which has naturally led to a fall in total deal value – there has been a surge in small-medium sized deals, particularly where the companies involved benefit from strong management which reacted decisively and innovatively to the pandemic. From what we have seen, the small-mid market has recovered much quicker than the report suggests.”

“For many of our local clients, particularly those in retail or with international businesses, our central geographic location with its road, air and rail and distribution hubs allowed them to benefit from changing trends, such as the shift towards online shopping, by plugging directly into the UK’s transport networks – as a result, the Midlands recorded 189 deals in Wholesale and Retail.”

“Manufacturing remained the region’s most active sector in 2020 (223 deals) and, in our experience, remained virtually unaffected. For example, one of our clients who imports raw materials from the continent and UAE to make heavy-gauge metal infrastructure parts quickly adopted stock-building, rigorous social distancing and cleaning policies and a shift in market emphasis and, despite reported issues in importing from some supplier countries, traded very robustly and surpassed profitability budgets.”

Changing deal structures enabled continuity for deal making activity in the region

Darren Hodson, Corporate Finance Partner at SCCF notes “In the Midlands, we also saw a real change in the type of deal structures, which rapidly adapted to the risks implicit in the severe restrictions introduced by the Government to combat the spread of COVID-19.”

“During the uncertainty of 2020, many buyers were keen to defer part of the purchase price and make it contingent upon future performance. This increase in the use of performance-based earn-outs, bridges valuation gaps and mitigates the risk of profitability being damaged by the effects of the pandemic.”

In summary, whilst 2020 has been a challenging year, deals are still taking place. Many businesses believe that these deals are bottom of the market “distressed deals”, but this is contrary to what SCCF has experienced. We are seeing normal deal making activities resuming with premia being paid for good quality assets.

Accountancy & Accounts, Appointments, Finance News, News

String of New Year promotions at Smith Cooper

Smith Cooper, a Midlands based top 41 Accountancy and Business Advisory firm, has welcomed in the New Year with a number of promotions and key strategic hires across many of its service lines as follows:

  • Natalie Pollard Senior Manager (Tax Advisory)
  • Kimberley Wapplington Senior Manager (Business Recovery and Insolvency)
  • Ali Raynor Manager (Audit)
  • Annabelle Rowlinson Manager (Accounts)
  • Tara Adams Assistant Manager (Accounts)
  • Matthew Aston Assistant Manager (Audit)
  • Jonathan Dunn Assistant Manager (Audit)

These promotions follow recent external strategic hires which include recruiting Adam Rollason into our Tax Advisory division, based in our Birmingham office,

Harriet Pye-Watson, who joins our ever-expanding Private Client team and Dinesh Pancholi, who is a Senior Manager in our specialist Employment tax team.

“Committed to attracting, developing and retaining home grown talent to facilitate the delivery of the firm’s strategic vision”

David Nelson, Senior Partner states “Whilst the impact of COVID-19 and the governments measures introduced to combat its spread led to several advisory and corporate finance projects being delayed, the nine months to December 20 saw the firm deliver pleasing growth across most of its service lines.”

“Especially pleasing was the continued growth within our Audit, Accounts and Tax compliance divisions which, following the investment and strategic focus given to them, took full advantage of the changes caused by the top 10 firm’s revised approach to service delivery and pricing. That growth should continue into 2021 through the new client wins we have already secured and our increased relevance and attraction to businesses looking at the service quality and value gained from their existing accountancy providers.”

“This current and future expected increase in client numbers means that we have an ever-increasing need for quality team members to support and contribute to the delivery of the growth. These recent promotions justify that not only are we growing, but with many of the team members having started with the firm as trainees, prove that we remain committed to attracting, developing and retaining home grown talent to facilitate the delivery of the firm’s strategic vision.”

“These promotions are very well deserved, and I am confident that each individual will go on to enhance their skills and reputation to their own and our clients’ benefit.”

“Whilst taking team members out of their comfort zone, our newly implemented promotion process provided successful candidates with a real sense of accomplishment”.

Sian O’Leary, HR Manager at Smith Cooper comments

“These promotions are the first where successful candidates have been taken through a formal process to help them understand their current and future potential within the firm, helping them achieve their professional goals whilst enhancing their sense of belonging and marking a real, measurable accomplishment.”

Awards, News

Multi-award success for Midlands contractor

Midlands contractor G F Tomlinson is celebrating being a successful finalist for both the East and West Midlands 2020 LABC Building Excellence Awards.

Announced via a virtual ceremony, the LABC Regional Building Excellence Awards are the largest business to business awards in the UK, and recognise outstanding public sector construction projects in 12 regions across England and Wales.

Successful projects that G F Tomlinson delivered were winners of the ‘Best Small Commercial Project’ in the East Midlands awards, and ‘Best Public Service or Educational Building’ in the West Midlands Awards.

Chesterfield-based project Ashgate Hospicecare was named as the winner of ‘Best Small Commercial Project’ in the East Midlands awards – completed last year, the refurbishment of the hospice included the creation of nine new private bedrooms for end of life care patients.

G F Tomlinson has been a longstanding supporter of Ashgate Hospicecare, and as its designated charity partner, the firm has been supporting the important work of the hospice since 2016.

Another successful project in the East Midlands Awards was The University of Nottingham Biodiscovery Institute, and works involved the construction of a world-class educational facility for research into identifying breakthroughs in the treatment and diagnosis of serious diseases. The project was awarded highly commended for the ‘Best Public Service or Educational Building’ category in the awards.

The Central Science Laboratories, Keele University project was the winner of the West Midlands ‘Best Public Service or Educational Building’ category, and works for this included the construction of a new 5,300 sq. metre, four-storey building which was completed in 2019, bringing state-of-the-art laboratories for geography, geology, forensic science and astrophysics courses to the Keele University Faculty of Natural Sciences.

Andy Sewards, managing director at G F Tomlinson, said: “We are delighted to have been successful in both the East and West Midlands LABC Building Excellence Awards this year.

“The awards recognise the hard work put into delivering high-quality public-sector schemes and all of our schemes that have been finalists in this years’ awards have made a positive impact on the local community – which is something that we are incredibly proud of. Well done to everyone involved.”

Midlands News, News

Checkprint Employee’s 25 Year Dedication

The dedication of Wayne Carlisle from Checkprint, part of the TALL Group of Companies based in Hinckley, was celebrated this week as he completed 25 years’ service with an astounding ‘no sick days’ for the entire duration!

Wayne joined the company back in 1995 – at a time when John Major was Prime Minister and Oasis was at number one with Wonder Wall. After spending nine years in the army, Wayne has worked his way up from maintenance engineer, to IT Manager and is now IT Director responsible for a team of 20.

Martin Ruda, Managing Director at the TALL Group of Companies, said: “ We value the experience of long-serving employees and know that this, along with their dedication, is the secret to our success. Wayne has been responsible for the delivery of high quality software solutions such as our Checkprint Solution, Bureau Services, and the patented fraud prevention tool ‘UCN Plus’® to our customers. It is a great pleasure to recognise staff for their dedication and I would like to congratulate him for all his hard work over the years. On a personal note, and mindful of Wayne’s services background, if ever one were in the trenches, Wayne is the man you would want next to you.”

Reflecting on the last 25 years, Wayne Carlisle, said: “I take great pride in my work and what I’ve accomplished. One of the highlights of the 25 years was when the company won the Queens Award for Innovation and I got to actually chat with the Queen at Buckingham Palace. I love to be hands-on and explore new challenges. I’ve been fortunate to have travelled the world with my job at Checkprint from France and Germany to Nigeria, Zanzibar and even LA and I’ve never had a day off sick. Long may it continue!”

To learn more about Checkprint, visit www.tallgroup.co.uk