New business recovery player on the patch
An ambitious new accountancy and professional services firm has opened an office in Manchester.
Yorkshire founded Fortus was set up by Craig Herbert and grew quickly by acquisition, buying Winn & Co and Rayner & Co in Scarborough, and PCLG in York.
The 6 strong Manchester team includes Alan Coleman, a veteran insolvency practitioner who Fortus lured from Cowgills last year to join FTS Recovery, described as the Restructuring and Recovery division of Fortus.
Coleman’s brief stint at Cowgills came as the Bolton-based accountancy firm acquired the business recovery arm of Manchester based accountancy firm RPG in 2021.
The FTS side of the business was formed in 2022 after Marco Piaquadio joined Fortus from business recovery specialists FRP.
FTS also has offices in Milton Keynes and London.
The opening of the Manchester office, in Tootal House on Oxford Street, the same building as the Growth Company and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, is the first move by Fortus into the North West professional services market after creating waves in Yorkshire when Herbert opened for business.
Coleman told TheBusinessDesk.com: “It’s a really fresh and dynamic business. A lot of the work we do is getting people out of a pickle, raising funds and helping them with different strategic options.
“Business wise, we’re dealing with the Covid hangover, a lot of businesses haven’t been able to recover, then as costs go up they get pressure from creditors, including from HMRC and on Bounce Back Loans.”
Speaking to TheBusinessDesk.com in 2020, Fortus founder Craig Herbert said: “What we don’t do is try and tell our clients how to run their business, they know that, they’re the experts. But we know that when they have problems in the bits that go around that – people, property, finance, cashflow – whatever it is we’ve got the solutions they’re going to need.”
He added: “Our goal is over the next few years to hit £9m revenue which would make us a substantial regional player and one of the last few owner managed businesses of that size not owned or funded by the private equity market.”
