Working together to build successful growth strategy
THE clock is ticking towards the entry deadline for the Gloucestershire Live Business Awards. With little more than a month remaining to submit your entries, headline sponsors Randall & Payne are continuing to shine the spotlight on each category.
Partner Will Abbott looks at the Growth Business of the Year category and how one company has taken steps towards its own growth.
WE all know that growing a business takes a lot of hard work and perseverance, so if your business has seen significant recent growth you should celebrate this success by entering Growth Business of the Year.
I am often asked about business growth as a way to ensure continued success, but many organisations need to make themselves growth ready before they can reap the benefits.
This involves setting a clear strategy and plan which I will demonstrate using a client success story featuring WHC Hire Services Ltd – a construction plant hire company, founded in 1997, who came to us for help with their growth strategy.
The senior management team at WHC worked closely with me to assist in developing and implementing a three-year plan.
When we started working with WHC, they indicated they were looking for significant, profitable and sustainable growth but were encountering barriers.
WHC faced a number of key challenges.
These included the renewal of a major contract which represented a significant proportion of sales while business growth was being constrained by the amount of equipment available to hire, requiring significant upfront capital investment. » Objectives
» We explored and developed a three-year vision, key strategies and a one-page plan to address these key challenges and set five objectives.
» Implementation
» The strategic plan set out a smart, powerful and outcome driven programme and the key elements of this were:
» Win the major contract renewal » Reduce reliance on individual customers
» Extend the hire fleet » Increase leadership and management capability
» Add a third depot
» Results
» The three-year plan was achieved with an increase in sales in excess of 100 per cent over the period, record turnover month to month and a significant increase in profit and cash flow.
The third depot was added by the purchase of a business with help from our corporate finance team – from initial negotiations, due diligence, finance and deal management.
Speaking at the opening by Lord Digby-jones, managing director James Clutterbuck said: “The partners and team at Randall & Payne simply gave us what we needed to turn our plans into reality.
“We are excited about the future and are already working with them on the next three-year plan”.
The success of WHC was recognised nat the 2017 British Accountancy Awards with victory in the the Best Client Project of the Year category.
By taking the time to understand the key issues and providing the skills and resources to support the plan, we proved essential to WHC’S growth.