CEO of Mortgage Advice Bureau “delighted” with performance as revenue rises
The CEO of Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) is “delighted” with the business’s performance in 2021, with revenue rising.
According to a trading update for the year ended 31 December 2021, the group increased revenue to £188m, representing a 27% increase on 2020 (£148m) and a 31% increase compared to 2019 (£144m).
The Derby-based firm said the increase in revenue since 2019 is driven by the combination of a 23% increase in the average number of mainstream advisers to 1,649 over the two-year period and a 7% increase in revenue per mainstream adviser.
At 31 December 2021, total adviser numbers had grown to 1,885, an increase of 305 (or 19%) for the year (31 December 2020: 1,580).
Meanwhile the group’s adjusted profit before tax for the year is expected to be in line with Board expectations.
Peter Brodnicki, CEO of MAB, said: “I am delighted with MAB’s performance and we enter 2022 with a strong and growing pipeline of business, ARs, advisers and lead sources, and expect to have a very strong start to the year in terms of adviser numbers.
“We are delighted with the recent investments we have made which we believe will contribute strongly, along with those that have been maturing in recent years.
“MAB’s strategy of not only delivering growth in advisers, but also in adviser productivity driven by further enhancements in our technology platform, lead generation initiatives and our proposition for ARs and their advisers, will drive profitability and supports our plan for accelerated growth.”
EFL agrees funding deadline extension with Derby County administrators
Derby County has been given extra time to prove to the EFL that they can finish the season.
Following a formal review of revised financial forecasts at Derby County, the EFL and club administrators Quantuma have agreed a month-long extension to a deadline set for proof of funding to be provided.
The EFL Board had previously requested evidence by 1 February 2022 of how Derby County was to be financed whilst it remained in administration, alongside a financial plan that determined how the club would fulfil its fixture commitments until the end of the current season.
The new development will allow the club to meet its ongoing obligations whilst giving a further four weeks to continue sale discussions with interested bidders and relevant stakeholders.
It also provides additional time for clarity to be sought on claims from Middlesbrough and Wycombe.
Solid ecommerce growth and retail recovery see strong quarter at Dr. Martens
Dr. Martens is confident in achieving market expectations for the full year following a strong third quarter.
According to a trading statement for the three months ended 31 December 2021, group revenue was up 11% year on year at £307m at the Northamptonshire-headquartered company. On a two-year basis, revenue was up 21%.
The firm hailed solid ecommerce growth in addition to a very good recovery of retail.
Kenny Wilson, Chief Executive Officer, said: “We delivered a good performance during our largest quarter, with Direct to Consumer (DTC) revenues growing 33% versus Q3 last year to 64% revenue mix.
“We continued to put our long-term custodian approach at the heart of decision making and proactively managed the business against a changing Covid backdrop, prioritising the higher margin DTC channels in line with our strategy.
“We remain confident in achieving market expectations for the full year and I would like to thank everyone at Dr. Martens for their exceptional hard work and dedication.”
In the period Dr. Martens opened 11 new stores.
11 things to know about Leicester and Leicestershire’s Labour Market in 2022
- Data reveals emerging employment hotspots, number of job adverts posted – and the digital skill most requested by employers
- World of Work Leicestershire summarises local labour market
- 28-page resource guides jobseekers, career changes and advisers
- Digital skills were needed in more than 90% of all job roles. The most requested digital skill requirement listed in regional job adverts is for Microsoft Excel
- About 10% of the area’s workforce are employed in health and social care. The region’s adult social care workforce needs to grow by 36% over the next three years
- There are 1,020 companies operating in the Low Carbon industry in Leicester and Leicestershire. The sector employs 21,400 local people
- The largest employer in the region is Manufacturing and Engineering. It provides more than 81,300 jobs across 5,015 companies
- Logistics is increasingly sizeable, with growth in high-tech roles. 95% of the English population is accessible from Leicester and Leicestershire by road within four hours
- Sport Park contains the UK’s highest concentration of sports governing bodies and national sports organisations. The Sport sector employs 16,900 people in the region
- Leicester and Leicestershire’s economy is worth £25 billion – the largest in the East Midlands
- Leicestershire apprenticeships remain an option for all. People can use them to gain skills in the workplace or to change careers at any age
- The region has the largest automotive technology park in Europe. More than 40 businesses are based at MIRA and more than 500 jobs have been created there since 2011
- Leicester and Leicestershire’s workforce is built on micro, small and medium-sized businesses. A total of 99.6% of them have fewer than 250 employees. In total, there are 47,995 registered businesses in the city and county
- There were 125,000 unique job adverts posted across Leicester and Leicestershire between January 2021 and January 2022. 46% of them were in Leicester.
Charity for the elderly receives four-figure donation from local software provider
Business management software provider, Solutions for Accounting and CRM, has recently donated a four-figure sum to The Silver Line, a charity that provides a confidential and free helpline for the elderly.
The firm fundraised through 50/50 draws, sponsored events and donations. In addition, instead of exchanging Secret Santa gifts, the team also chose to donate food to their local food bank.
The Silver Line offers immediate friendship and comfort to lonely and isolated elderly callers and provides them with information on any issues they may face. Since launching in November 2015, the team at The Silver Line has helped elderly people work on issues ranging from housing and health, to finding lunch clubs and assistance with financial concerns.
Over the years at Solutions for Accounting and CRM, the Nottingham-based firm has supported many charities including The Little Princess Trust, Mind, Nottingham Children’s Hospital and The Alzheimer’s Society. During the COVID pandemic these causes have needed support more than ever.
After an employee vote, they have decided that the charity they will be supporting in 2022 is Sands, the leading stillbirth and neonatal death charity in the UK.
Sands was founded by bereaved parents in 1978 who found that there was no access to support following the loss of their babies. Since then, the charity has grown, and parents who have experienced the loss of a baby is at the core of everything they do.
Sands works in partnership with health care professionals, trusts and health boards offering a range of training programmes and bereavement care resources to ensure that bereaved parents and families receive the best possible care throughout the UK. The charity also supports and promotes research to better understand the causes of baby loss and help save lives.
Solutions for Accounting and CRM plan to continue raising both money and awareness for charity in 2022, with a number of their team members looking to volunteer their time in addition to fundraising. They will also be taking part in the Great Notts Bike Ride for the 6th year and hope to raise more money than ever before for their chosen charity.
Iain Barker, Managing Director at Solutions for Accounting and CRM, said: “We’re delighted and thankful to be able to support these great causes. We are aware of the wonderful work that charities such as The Silver Line and Sands carry out, and I am proud that as a company we are able to pull together to really make a difference.
“Our fundraising efforts would not be possible without the support of our generous clients, business partners, employees and families. We hope our contribution will help The Silver Line staff to continue to make a huge difference to the those who are in need and are excited to see what we can do to support Sands this year.”
Bridge Help becomes a carbon neutral organisation
Chesterfield-based Bridge Help has started 2022 as a carbon neutral organisation, offsetting the entire carbon footprint of its workforce – from their flights and car journeys to lunches and energy usage both at work and home.
In just two months the commercial bridging finance company has directly funded the planting of 508 trees across Madagascar, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique as well as achieving a reduction in 34.44 tonnes of CO2.
Becoming carbon neutral has been made possible by Ecologi – an organisation which helps companies and individuals fund impactful climate solutions, plant trees, analyse carbon footprint, become climate positive, achieve carbon neutrality and more.
Every member of the Bridge Help team has been registered with Ecologi and carbon credits aligned according to their lifestyle. By signing up to Ecologi, the Bridge Help team is directly funding high-impact climate solutions and supporting the town’s ambition to become a carbon neutral borough by 2050.
Companies and organisations that have signed up to Ecologi have, together, funded the planting of 31,450,527 trees reducing 1,239,380 tonnes of CO2 to date in a drive to bring greenhouse gas emissions in the UK to net zero by 2050.
Chris Sellars, Chief Executive of Bridge Help, said: “Prior to signing up to Ecologi, we made small steps in becoming a carbon neutral business however this has now been accelerated. What myself and the team particularly like about Ecologi, is that we are all offsetting our personal carbon output 24/7 whether we are working or not. It is something the whole team is passionate about and we’ll be taking further steps throughout 2022 and beyond to reduce our impact on the environment.”
Despite the economic slowdown due to the pandemic, the highest ever atmospheric CO2 concentration (419 parts per million) was recorded in June 2021. With seven of the warmest years on record all occurring since 2014, the issue of climate change is increasingly pressing.
Leicester dental practice sold
Specialist business property adviser, Christie & Co, has sold Taylors Dental Practice – a mixed-income, three-surgery practice which sits in a 1923 purpose-built building in the city of Leicester.
The business was brought to market to enable its previous owners to retire after a long career. Following a confidential marketing process, it has been sold to husband-and-wife team, Dr Milan and Dr Krishna Chande. The pair have been Associates for over five years and this is their first dental practice purchase.
Dr Milan Chande says: “We hope to initially support the practice through the changeover and then renovate and modernise, adding additional capacity in the near future. Expansion of private dentistry and plan based dentistry is a huge opportunity at the practice, and there is also potential to enhance the offering with additional services such as advanced endodontics, facial aesthetics, short-term orthodontics and implants.”
Steve O’Connor, senior business agent at Christie & Co, who handled the sale, says: “Taylors Dental Practice has been providing dentistry to the local community for almost a century, and I was delighted to have represented the vendors in the sale and wish them and Milan and Krishna the very best. The practice generated significant interest, with an influx of viewings and an impressive 22 offers.
“The dental market across Leicestershire and the wider Midlands area is incredibly sought-after for quality dental practices, with demand far out-weighing supply.”
Taylors Dental Practice was sold for an undisclosed price.
2022 Business Predictions: David Marshall, Sterling Commercial Finance
It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.
It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years.
Here we speak to David Marshall, commercial finance consultant at Sterling Commercial Finance.
One of the few things I feel confident in predicting for 2022 is that widespread uncertainty will provide a challenging backdrop for businesses.
In November, while there was still much turbulence around, we were just beginning to see a path towards some sort of normality. While there was always the fear of a further mutation of the Coronavirus, the actual announcement of the Omicron variant was the last thing any of us wanted to hear.
Working from home, lockdowns, inflation, higher interest rates, shortages (materials and labour) etc. are all potential challenges. I predict that those businesses that plan for the best, but prepare for the worst will be best placed to deal with 2022.
As ever, cash continues to be King, and having a base case financial forecast for the year that is regularly updated, and can be stress tested with different scenarios, will assist in decision making. Running a rolling 13-week cash flow forecast will help identify pinch points and can of itself be a call to action.
So whatever 2022 may throw at you, I predict financial planning, careful cash management, managing key relationships with staff, suppliers, customers and drawing on the skills of your external professional team as required, will all be time well spent.
2022 Business Predictions: Mark Johnston, director, Cube Construction Consultants
It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.
It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years.
Here we speak to Mark Johnston, director at Cube Construction Consultants.
2021 has seen significant pressures on the construction market, not only resource availability but also extended lead times and challenging working practices. Let’s take the positives, it is a credit to the industry that all those involved found solutions quickly by adapting standard practices. Many of our clients have implemented procurement initiatives, adopted alternative site set ups and logistics plans and have embraced the need for clear process in detailed bid and project planning.
Being adaptable is key, a collective approach by project teams to mitigating risk is vital to successful tendering and project completions. Just this year, we have seen a significant increase in take up of our Project Health Checks which provide an independent strategic review, identifying what could be better, what’s gone well and what the action plan needs to be for assurance of project completion. Proactive management provides the platform to gather performance data over multiple projects. It allows for lessons to be learnt, structured forward planning implementation and staff mentoring and development.
Digital transformation is now very real and not only for national contractors. Simple software solutions are having a massive effect on project communications, collaboration, accountability and information accessibility. They are providing real time data that can improve outcomes and, more importantly, information to analyse business risk and opportunity. They will play a huge part in contractors making the most of the significant opportunities now in the market. Our view is simple…keep it simple, focus on the fundamentals of what gives your projects every opportunity to succeed. Clear procurement plan, solid project programme, accurate monitoring and reporting and an open relationship with your supply chain to benefit from collaboration.
Henry Boot Construction promotes Craig Finn to newly created Director position
Henry Boot Construction has recently promoted Craig Finn to the position of Director. In this newly created position he will be responsible for maintaining the business’ pipeline of sustainable projects and leading on its evolution.
An engineering graduate of The University of Aberdeen, Craig has 27 years of construction experience across the private and public sectors. His impressive portfolio spans highways infrastructure and maintenance, civil engineering, building and refurbishment.
Craig joined the company in 2015 as Bid Manager, where he was responsible for creating new work-winning strategies through a high-performing pre-construction team across of a diverse range of projects.
During this time, Craig has become a leading voice and advocate for the government’s Construction Playbook and sustainability, not only on the company’s projects, but across the whole construction sector.
His natural step up to Director level now allows him to go one step further – promoting modern partnerships and collaborations with procuring authorities to drive forward the implementation of new sustainable technologies.
With the sector experiencing huge amounts of change – born out of ever-evolving technologies, net-zero-carbon ambitions, Brexit, and of course, Covid-19, Craig is encouraging customers to take a more efficient and joined-up approach to working, by bringing development teams, architects, supply chain and construction contractors together at the very early stages of a project lifecycle.
“At Henry Boot Construction, we’ve always been able to adapt to market conditions. We take well-informed decisions and because we are not a behemoth, we can remain flexible and nimble. That’s one of the reasons we’ve been successful for 136 years,” explains Craig.
“Over the last five years the delivery model has adapted. It’s happened naturally as new technologies evolve but it’s becoming more and more evident that our customers need us to be involved from very early in the project timeline. Significant social value and net-zero-carbon ambitions can’t simply be bolted on, or retro-fitted, to a development project.
So, a large part of my new role will be to demystify some of the key sector challenges and demonstrate that true collaboration can be both effective and transformational.”
Tony Shaw, Managing Director said: “I am pleased to welcome Craig to the board of Directors. He has made a significant impact in his time with us so far and in this new position he will be able to help drive the business forward. Craig supports and truly understands the industry’s agenda to modernise and create a sustainable future, and we are extremely confident he will position us and our customers at the forefront of this new era.”
