A COMPANY specialising in selling businesses is riding out the recession.
Holmfirth-based Amberglobe was only launched nine months ago – but has already completed a string of transactions across the country and acquired another national business brokers to expand its scope still further.
Valuation director Nick Brown said: “Since opening nine months ago we have bucked the ‘doom and gloom’ trend and are going from strength to strength.
“From day one, we have shown tremendous growth in this industry. Although the economic climate was not in the best shape, we have found that there have been – and still are – a lot of people looking to buy businesses.”
Mr Brown said would-be purchasers included people who had been made redundant and wanted to work for themselves. Transactions had also been buoyed by sellers setting more realistic asking prices – as well as companies wanting to expand their existing businesses or consolidate.
Recent successes for Amberglobe include the sale of a retail shop in Holmfirth and a children’s play gym and cafe in Meltham. The average time for a business sale is six to nine months – but both The Potters Dens and Woodland Play Gym sold well within this time frame.
Mr Brown said Amberglobe has also acquired another national business brokers – taking the number of businesses that it has for sale to about 2,000.
He said: “This was a very bold move for us, but because we had all worked together before setting up Amberglobe we felt that we had the skills and infrastructure in place to be able to integrate this business into our business.
“Due to this exciting acquisition, the number of people employed by us has doubled and we are already considering further expansion of our offices in Holmfirth.”
Said Mr Brown: “The good news is that we are finding the enquiries for businesses throughout country are growing. The number of e-mail enquiries we receive at the Holmfirth office are averaging 100-plus a day.”
The company has also trained a team to help ensure that businesses being marketed for sale have the necessary energy performance certificate.
But he added: “We have found that – as finance for buying is not as easy to come by as in previous years – it is imperative that businesses are valued correctly in the first place and that the agent selling the business has the knowledge and experience to be able to see the sale through to completion.”
Added Mr Brown: “We are very pleased by how far we have come in such a short space in time and even though the market remains hard work – because competitors are cutting back and struggling to survive – the future looks bright for this fledgling company.”
