The Interview
as required. We have predominantly a technical workforce many of whom join us straight from University and we hire 2 or 3 placement students most years. It’s nice to see these people develop and many of our previous hires have been fast tracked through the business into different roles or have gone on to work for our licensing partners. Our people work hard and we put a lot of responsibility on them but we reward those who show commitment and effort.
How has the company developed in recent years?
When we first came to market we were focused on providing our software to small businesses via IFAs. Today we still serve that market place but we also license our technology to many larger firms, including Hargreaves Lansdown, KPMG, Mercer and Willis who on-sell it to their large corporate clients. We also carried out a very large development project for Aviva who license our software and more recently we have completed a licensing deal with NOW:Pensions one of the UK’s new Master Trust Pension Providers.
One of our challenges has been that our software is a discretionary purchase and not mission critical; however, recent market changes have worked in our favour. The first of these is the new pension auto-enrolment regulation which requires
every
employer to automatically put each employee into a qualifying workplace pension scheme. The regulation is very complex and an administration burden for businesses of all sizes. Staffcare was one of the first to market with auto-enrolment software and we are now in a market driven by regulatory change which impacts every UK employer.
Secondly the Retail
Distribution Review (RDR) came into play which eroded commission income for IFAs and EBCs. This has forced that market to look at opportunities for generating new revenue streams and reducing the cost of client servicing; our software helps on both counts. Auto-enrolment and RDR are game changers for Staffcare.
SimplyBiz Group recently acquired a majority share in the company; what more can you tell us about this?
Over the years we have attracted investment from a number of people and it got to the point where I decided it was timely to clean up the shareholder base, help early investors to exit and bring in a new shareholder who could add value and help us through our next stage of growth and to seize the enormous opportunity presented by auto-enrolment. This coincided with a lot of inbound interest from trade and private equity. I appointed a firm of corporate advisers to help us with our strategic options and to manage a sale process. We received a lot of interest and offers but decided to proceed with SimplyBiz as their proposed deal structure allowed our silent shareholders to exit in full and for me and a fellow director to roll a significant part of our shareholding and enjoy the upside of future growth with a clearly defined exit strategy. We felt very comfortable with the people at SimplyBiz, their culture and market reputation.
What does this acquisition mean for Staffcare and what are your plans moving forward?
SimplyBiz provide services to about 2,000 IFA firms who will all have clients impacted by auto-enrolment. These IFAs are an extension to Staffcare’s distribution channel and give us tremendous coverage of the corporate marketplace whilst helping these IFAs to deliver an affordable solution to their clients to manage their obligations under the new pension regulation.
We will continue to operate as a standalone business albeit we will take advantage of SimplyBiz’s central resources and their expertise in marketing and client servicing.
I continue to lead the business with the
support of my fellow Directors and the management team and we remain focused on building market
leading software for all aspects of employee benefits communication, enrolment and administration.
What lies ahead for Staffcare in the coming years?
Benefit Platforms are becoming increasingly popular due to the changes brought about by auto-enrolment and RDR as well as an increasing focus from employers to maximize their investment in employee benefits to help with employee engagement. We will continue to invest in product development, currently at the rate of c:25% of our revenues, to ensure we maintain our marketing leading position.
We are starting to look outside of the UK now and have a project underway to manage benefits for a client across 32 Countries supporting multiple currencies and languages. With many multi-national companies headquartered in the UK and with many global licensing partners we see global benefits management as a natural extension for our software.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
This is an exciting time for the business, for our employees and for our new shareholders. We have intellectual property in market leading software operating in a large market driven by regulatory change with the potential to expand globally. I am looking forward to the next few years.
Contact: Staffcare Ltd
Leatherhead House Station Road, Leatherhead Surrey, KT22 7FG United Kingdom
Tel: 0845 372 6644 Web:
www.staffcare.net
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