Profits double at Peninsula

THE parent company of Manchester-based employment law consultancy Peninsula Business Services Group more than doubled pre-tax profits in the year to March 31 to £4m (2010: £1.8m).

Rainy City Investments, which is owned by the brothers behind the BetFred chain, Peter and Fred Done, also increased sales by 8% to £83m (£76.5m).

Some £68m of this came from the Peninsula Business Services company, with the remainder coming from other parts of the group including its operations in Ireland and its Taxwise tax advice consultancy.

Notes to the accounts prepared by directors credited the increase in sales were a result of the “increased activity levels which is a testament to the nature and the quality of the services offered by the group”.

The group’s administrative expenses also rose by £1.7m to £28.3m, which “reflects the the full-year costs associated with moving to the new offices at The Peninsula in Manchester’s Green Quarter during the year”.

The Peninsula is a 12-storey, £48m building also owned by the Done brothers. The company has taken six floors or 69,491 sq ft within the 147,000 sq ft building, which also houses e-commerce site Laterooms.com.

The directors also said they were “confident that the company will continue to forge ahead as market leaders”.

Since the year end, the company has completed a pair of acquisitions which have boosted its presence in different markets. In October, it bought Taunton-based consultancy Health Assured, which helps to reduce absenteeism by providing employee assistance programmes offering support on personal and financial issues.

Earlier this week, it announced that it had bought employment law arm of Dublin-based human resources consultancy Graphite HRM, which has five staff and a base of 600 clients.

Peninsula Business Services already has a presence in the Irish market, where it employs 65 people in Dublin and Belfast serving more than 2,500 customers.
Peter Done described the deal as “an exceptional deal for us”.