In Brief: For Entrepreneurs Only; Sanderson deal; Frillo; Forward Ladies; Yorkshire accountant banned
LLOYDS Bank has become a key partner of For Entrepreneurs Only, a group of Hull and East Yorkshire business men and women who are committed to helping create wealth and jobs in the local area.
Lloyds Bank joins Rollits, Smailes Goldie and KC, who have also pledged their support to FEO.
FEO members dedicate time to help other local entrepreneurs via a wide range of events including FEO Business Bootcamps, regular clinics for start-ups and by one-to-one mentoring. The support provided by FEO’s Key Partners helps the group to continue offering these services and events free of charge.
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SOFTWARE and IT services group Sanderson has expanded with the £600,000 acquisition of a Midlands-based e-commerce firm.
Sanderson, which is based in Coventry and has an operation in Sheffield, serves the multi-channel retail and manufacturing markets in the UK and Ireland, has acquired Rugby-based Catan Marketing in a deal worth a maximum of £644,660.
Catan provides e-commerce solutions under the ‘Priam’ trading name to over 30 multi-channel retailers. For the year ended August 31, 2012, Catan achieved a pre-tax profit of £27,000 (2011: £69,000) on revenue of £895,000 (2011: £1,160,000). At the date of acquisition, Catan had net assets of approximately £50,000.
Sanderson, which said the acquisition could be the first in a number of new deals, added it was also continuing to trade well in the second half of the financial year and performance was expected to be in line with market forecasts. It said there were some early signs of improving general economic conditions and this should assist future organic growth.
Adrian Ballam and Simon Shepherd from West Yorkshire law firm Schofield Sweeney also worked on the deal.
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UNIVERSITY graduate Mike Drewery is receiving one-to-one mentoring from entrepreneur Gerard Toplass to help drive an innovative new office supplies business forward.
The business, called Frillo, was launched in March and aims revolutionise the way businesses and consumers buy office stationery.
Gerard Toplass, chief executive of Frillo, said: “All consumers understand there are charges for arranging orders, organising deliveries and processing transactions. The Frillo model is completely open, honest and transparent. Customers pay the wholesale cost for the item, the cost for delivery and the finance costs for credit cards. A very small fee also applies for arranging this process.
“This is a brand new way of selling to the end user and could very well change the way we purchase in the future. By operating solely online, we are efficient and can supply goods to the customer quickly to save them time and money.”
Mike Drewery graduated in 2012 from the University of Hull with a degree in accounting and finance and, with support and guidance from Mr Toplass, has helped to manage the launch of Frillo and put his business skills to test in the real world.
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THE founder of a Wakefield specialist glazing business has partnered up with Forward Ladies to act as ambassador.
Margaret Wood, of ICW (UK) has a long association with Forward Ladies and will represent it at a series of consultative events in Yorkshire and London.
Etta Cohen who founded the networking group under Yorkshire Forward said that increasingly Forward Ladies needed to draw on members who understood the group’s ethos to represent it regionally and nationally.
“Forward Ladies is now recognised as a major force representing the views of successful women across diverse fields,” she said.
“It is a tremendous opportunity to ensure women’s issues are represented at every level so that we make a real contribution about the future of the UK economy, but it poses a challenge because we don’t have vast resources. We need to be able to call on women who have experience of business and an understanding of the economy. We are very fortunate in being able to enlist Margaret who is able to articulate our ethos of diversity and inclusivity at such a high level.”
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THE jailed director of an accountancy practice based in Wakefield has been disqualified from being a director for falsely obtaining money from investors and duping clients into paying his company funds that ought to have gone to the taxman.
Darren Upton’s disqualification follows an investigation by the Insolvency Service. He has given an undertaking to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) not to promote, manage, or be a director of a limited company until 2027.
Upton, 41, was the director of Upton & Co Accountants, which was placed into voluntary liquidation in October 2011 owing creditors and shareholders £1.8m.
Upton did not dispute that he obtained £196,145 from clients of the company by providing them with false bank account details into which clients made payments properly due to HMRC for corporation tax.
