NW Masters: Fred Done hungry for online growth
BETFRED boss Fred Done says he is mulling expansion into Eastern Europe and also wants to grow his online business, which he would like to move from Gibraltar to the North West – but only if tax rules are changed.
Mr Done, who was named winner of The North West Ambassador Award at TheBusinessDesk.com’s North West Business Masters awards yesterday, said his appetite to grow Warrington-based BetFred remains unsated , despite last year’s milestone £265m acquisition of The Tote.
He said: “We’re very ambitious, the older I get the more ambitious I get. We just have been offered a business in Eastern Europe which we’re looking at, but the big growth story for us is going to be the online business.
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“Over the last three years we have grown it 80%, 85% and 60% this year. The world’s your oyster on the web – there is just one thing I don’t like and that is that my online business is based in Gibraltar and it should be in this country.
“They have got to change the taxation to allow us to bring those jobs back here. There are 120 jobs in Gibraltar that should be in Warrington with me.”
He said the British gaming sector was the best and most competitive in the world, but margins were “paper thin” and the business is “all about volume”.
Asked about the Tote deal, he said BetFred had faced a number of hurdles from the establishment, in both Whitehall and in the horseracing community: “At the time someone said: ‘It’s the top hats versus the flat caps’, and the flat caps won.”
Mr Done also said The North West Business Masters award was the first business achievement award he had won.
“It’s not something I’ve gone after, but this has found me, which is nice. But we’re hardly an overnight success, we’ve been in this for 50 years.
He added that the integration of the Tote business was also working well. Having set an initial target to carry out an integration process by March, the work was actually completed by the end of January.
Mr Done was named Ambassador ahead of Mike Blackburn from BT and JD Sports Fashion executive chairman Peter Cowgill.
More than 150 peolple attend the North West Business Masters Awards, sponsored by Jaguar, at the Midland Hotel in Manchester.
Guests heard a number of inspiring stories of success, achievement and innovation. Read all about the winners and the event by clicking here
