Professional services provider Leonard Curtis Business Solutions Group is celebrating 25 years in business.
As part of future growth plans, the firm has also made a new appointment to its main Board of Directors. Director and Insolvency Practitioner Mark Colman, head of the company’s Preston office, has joined the senior leadership team, bringing 20 years’ experience in the restructuring and corporate recovery sector.
The market-leading firm, which started life in Bury as the insolvency division of a regional accountancy practice, now employs over 240 people across 19 regional offices – including Preston, London and Guernsey – with Manchester the location of its UK headquarters.
Leonard Curtis specialises in corporate restructuring and insolvency, personal debt advice, equity and debt finance raising for SMEs, cashflow optimisation, property solutions and legal services. It was one of the first professional services firms to add legal support into its portfolio and now offers a full multi-disciplinary approach for clients across Lancashire and the UK.
The milestone also sees the firm reach the £30million turnover mark for the first time and hit the number two spot in the UK insolvency practice ‘charts’ as well as making excellent progress in its legal and finance brokerage divisions.
Leonard Curtis Legal – under the leadership of Andrew Gregory – has gone from a ‘start-up’ position to exceeding £1.5million turnover and a headcount of 12 in less than three years. Last year Reach Commercial Finance, an 11-strong team headed up by Director Gary Cain, helped 250 SMEs, introducing over £60m of funding lines across a wide range of products and referring over 1000 enquiries to more than 60 funders.
Growth opportunities have also come via the company’s specialist Lifecycle service for accountants. Lifecycle now has nearly 3000 members from across the UK who get access to Leonard Curtis’s full range of expertise.
In recent weeks the firm has also made 15 internal promotions and has welcomed seven new starters, as it emerges from lockdown looking to the future.
Commenting on the 25-year anniversary milestone, Director Mark Colman said: “It’s been an amazing period of growth and we are grateful to everyone who has made it possible. From our network of professional and financial advisers who recommend us, to colleagues around the UK who work tirelessly to problem solve every day and to clients who take advice, and, we hope, come through business challenges stronger and in better control.”
He continued: “The company has always been founded on practical, straight-talking advice, whether that be around insolvency or a funding solution, legal advice or property guidance. We don’t judge in a crisis we just get on with sorting it all out. We are an SME business too, and I think that helps us understand what companies are going through.”
Looking forward, the fastest growing part of the Leonard Curtis business – and where attention will be focused – will be in positive, non-insolvency solutions.
Mark explained: “Restructuring is our heartland service area – what we are probably most renowned for – and we want that top spot in the UK provider league table – but we want to maximise opportunities to fund and advise at all stages of a business’ lifecycle.”
In its silver anniversary year, Leonard Curtis has committed to increasing apprentice and graduate opportunities and launching a new charitable scheme – called The Leonard Curtis Foundation – to provide a focal point and framework to increase the firm’s ‘giving’, with an emphasis on employees and the causes they care about.
