HUDDERSFIELD business guru Graham Leslie is backing a new online venture.
The founder of pharmaceutical firm Galpharm has joined forces with TV celebrity Sarah Willingham and entrepreneur Michael Toxvaerd to launch the new website business at www.LetsSaveSomeMoney.com
The new venture, which has won financial backing from Mr Leslie, aims to provide help for people bemused by the major price comparison websites.
Sarah, who has appeared on TV’s This Morning, Daybreak and BBC1’s The Restaurant, is also one of the UK’s best-known female money saving experts and consumer champions.
Sarah said she had launched the site to “galvanise people into taking action to claim the free money that’s available to them” by concentrating on the “simple, easy big wins” like getting cheaper energy bills and a better credit card deal.
The website has been launched after a 12-month project comparing existing price comparison sites, speaking to providers and applying for hundreds of products to create a one-minute guide for consumers.
The site has been launched with one-minute guides to borrowing, utilities, insurance, mortgages, broadband, TV and phones. More guides will be added over the next few weeks with the aim to save the consumer thousands of pounds in the coming months.
Graham, who is Huddersfield University’s first visiting professor of entrepreneurship, said: “I am very excited to be working with Sarah and Michael on this, an independent advisory website which will benefit hundreds of thousands of people in the UK.
“Their ideas and vision were plain for me to see and I am delighted to be involved in something so valuable to the consumer on a national scale.”
The former Huddersfield Town chairman, who will oversee projects at the university’s new multi-million pound Enterprise and Innovation Centre, said: “Starting any business in today’s climate is extremely hard work, but LetsSaveSomeMoney is exactly what people need right now and I’m confident that they will benefit from using the site.”
Sarah said: “The truth is that many of the comparison sites offer a fantastic service with great products, but people don’t know where to start.
“People are overwhelmed and constantly bombarded with stacks of information, best buy tables and hundreds of products and providers. It is just too confusing and time consuming and it puts people off taking action.
“We want to equip the consumer with enough information to take action and to save money with the best of the best companies out there.”
She said: “People just need someone to cut through the pages of information and tell them what really matters. I hope that’s what we have achieved.”
Stoke-born Sarah has already earned a reputation as a successful serial entrepreneur, turning the Bombay Bicycle Club into the largest chain of Indian restaurants in the UK.
She is also a founding director and investor in the London Cocktail Club, a successful chain of cocktail bars in central London.
Michael Toxvaerd is founder and former chief executive and deputy chairman of NeutraHealth plc, which he later sold to Indian company Elder Pharmaceutical.
He is co-founder of private equity firms HBG Holdings UK and executive director of HBG Holdings, an international private equity firm.
