Finance firm investing £1.4m in new Liverpool office
A national finance company is investing £1.4m in opening a Liverpool operation.
Sedulo’s lease for its new offices in Exchange Flags will cost more than £1m, and it will spend a further £400,000 transforming the 7,000 sq ft space in an area honouring the city’s history.
The new workplace will feature a Jurgen Klopp and Howard Kendall suite with an indoor garden, dugouts, table football machines and seats in blue and red to pay homage to the rivalry and history between the city’s two major football clubs Liverpool FC and Everton FC.
The main board meeting room has been designed like a military bunker, complete with sandbags and 1940s Wrens uniforms to pay respects to the building which once housed a bomb-proof bunker in the basement of Walker House as part of a military command headquarters.
There’s also a McVitie’s/Crawfords suite being installed – with Crawfords having been a major Liverpool confectioners producing biscuits from the late 1800s until being merged with McVitie’s in the 1970s.
A podcast studio, modelled on Oprah Winfrey’s set, is being put in place, too, and will pay respects to the slave trade that once took place nearby, while there will also be a 3,000 sq ft bar, an outdoor Victorian terrace garden overlooking the Royal Liver Building and an American diner.
Sedulo founder, Paul Cheetham-Karcz, said: “From day one the plan was to open offices in Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds. We’ve got a London office but outside of the capital these are the UK’s most dynamic cities.
“I wanted to be the first proper advisory firm that had a real hold in each city, people have tried it before and done the odd seat, table or two-man desk but we didn’t want to do that as we wanted to build a stronghold in all three.”
He added: “I love all three cities. Liverpool is great and I don’t understand the competition. If you ask me, 90% of all the cities are the same – they have strong working-class roots and are built on a strong work ethic, but the 10%, culturally – that’s what makes them all fantastic.
“It’s those 10% quirks that I try to respect. I am incredibly excited to be launching Sedulo in Liverpool.”
Sedulo, which has a base in London, started out as a tax accountancy firm but developed into a company providing a suite of financial services including advice on taxes, mortgages, financial planning and accountancy.
It now looks after the finances of a number of business leaders, musicians, sports stars and TV personalities, including household names such as David Haye, Carol Vorderman, the boxing Smith brothers and Bugzy Malone.
The company also invests in businesses and recent funding has been agreed with a Wirral travel company, a gymwear brand and a nutrition performance start-up.
Mr Cheetham-Karcz said: “The reason why we built all that is because entrepreneurs are busy and if you’re not careful, you can get fragmented.
“We then realised footballers, boxers, athletes, musicians, actors, presenters, TV celebrities and busy business leaders all need the same thing and are looking for an all round holistic advisor – rather than several different people advising you without ever being in the same room.
“So they need an overall vision and that is what we provide.”
