Profits soar to £11.2m for AJ Bell
Manchester-headquartered investment and pension business AJ Bell has seen revenue increase by 24% to £37m and profit before tax increase by 27% to £11.2m.
The results are for the first the first six months of its financial year, from October 1, 2016, to March 31, 2017, during the first six months of its financial year.
Meanwhile, firm has just completed its move into a new state of the art head office in Salford Quays.
The end of the tax year on April 5 is traditionally a busy period for financial services companies and this year passed all previous records with AJ Bell recording more than £1bn in new business inflows during the final month of the tax year.
AJ Bell now looks after £36.3bn of investments for 155,000 customers in the UK through a combination of online pensions, Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs), and dealing accounts.
In line with this strong business growth, the company continues to expand its work force and now employs 650 people, the majority of which are based at 4 Exchange Quay, Salford Quays (EQ4).
EQ4 was designed and fitted out in conjunction with another Manchester based firm TSK.
The emphasis is on agile and collaborative working in order to deliver first class service to AJ Bell’s customers. Staff played a big part in the development of the new workspace with ‘champions’ selected from each business area to engage employees with the move.
As well as a state of the art work space the office includes a gym, relaxed break out areas, a roof terrace and a dining area and lounge which will transform in to a bar for staff once a month.
AJ Bell has also teamed up with Transport for Greater Manchester in order to deliver enhanced facilities at EQ4 for staff cycling to work and to offer staff season ticket loans to help them take advantage of local public transport links to commute to the new office.
Andy Bell, co-founder and chief executive at AJ Bell, said: “The first half of the year has been very strong for us which is primarily a result of the hard work and dedication of our people. We have grown significantly the number of customers we help manage their investments and this has resulted in a strong increase in our revenue and profit.
“This enables us to invest further in the ongoing growth of our business and the move to the new HQ at Exchange Quay is part of that. We expect the move to help facilitate further growth both in terms of new business and local employment opportunities for people in Manchester.”
