Deal Maker of the Year Awards 2013 WINNER - GRAHAM PULFORD DEAL: Speed Medical buys Medical Legal Appointments
NAME: Graham Pulford COMPANY: Speed Medical POSITION: Managing Director WEBSITE:
www.speedmedical.com
BIO
Graham Pulford is managing director of Speed Medical, the UK’s largest independent provider of medical reports, rehabilitation and ancillary services used in the resolution of personal injury claims and the company’s newly acquired asset, Medical Legal Appointments, a medical agency specialising in industrial disease claims. He is also managing director of sister company Aim, one of the fastest growing wholesale insurance brokers and providers of electronic trading platform technology to the insurance market.
Pulford joined Speed Medical in 2004 when, after six years, the business was still struggling to find its niche. Employing 120 staff, it completed fewer than 15,000 medical reports annually, turning over just £8.5M a year.
Through his astute commercial leadership, organic growth and efficiency improvements were rapid. In 2006, Speed became a member of AMRO, of which Pulford is now an executive committee member; the same year he oversaw Speed’s move into purpose built offices in Chorley. By 2010, Speed had consolidated its position as number three in the medico-legal reporting market and Pulford had established his reputation as a force to be reckoned with.
At 16, he started a career in IT where he attained myriad technical qualifications and built up an extensive track record developing technological solutions for retailing, manufacturing and insurance clients. A spell selling claims management software to credit hire companies led him to his eventual appointment at Speed. Now, a much expanded portfolio of services, bespoke IT solutions for clients, around 100,000 medical reports a year and phenomenal customer satisfaction ratings – all achieved with a combined Speed/MLA workforce of under 200, turning over almost £50M – underline his mantra: deliver unrivalled customer service from the lowest cost base.
DEAL OVERVIEW Q
Please summarise the transaction
In June, 2013, Chorley-based Speed Medical, the UK’s largest independent provider of medical reports, rehabilitation and ancillary services used in the resolution of personal injury claims throughout the UK, acquired Medical Legal Appointments Ltd, a specialist in occupation and industrial- disease related claims. The deal was funded out of working capital enabling both parties to extend and improve the scope, performance and efficiency of their operations for the benefit of their respective customers in the legal marketplace.
Q
What was your role within the transaction?
As managing director, I led Speed Medical’s board in a year- long search for the right takeover target. After shortlisting possible candidates, we began serious negotiations with the outright owner and chief executive of Medical Legal Appointments, David Edmondson, in January 2013. We were quick to realise the synergies involved and so, with due diligence completed and a shared desire to make things happen, the deal was completed on 12 June, 2013
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existing customers as well as prospects. That, almost instant, perfect fit; our determination to push the deal through and the fact that Dave and I shared the same beliefs about how best to serve customers and treat staff, combined to eliminate most of the challenges deals like this can throw up.
Q
How does the transaction fit in with your overall business strategy?
The purchase was a perfect fit with our longer-term growth and diversification plans and was a progressive move in the current climate, demonstrating both our strength and ambition. MLA was a well-run, profitable business, full of passionate, skilled and pragmatic professionals committed to delivering quality, value and innovation, sharing our desire to provide an unrivalled service to customers and their clients.
Q Q
What were the challenges or difficulties presented?
Timing. Not referring necessarily to the speed at which we wanted to move but the prevailing business climate which provided the backdrop to the deal. Clouds of uncertainty were, and still are, hanging over the industry with negative media headlines, spiralling insurance costs, government reforms, the abolition of referral fees for new business and the creation of alternative business structures. The other main challenge in such an intensely competitive marketplace, where everyone knows everyone else, was secrecy.
Q
How were the challenges or difficulties overcome?
With the support of great teams behind us, to cope with all of the other day to day issues facing our businesses and strong bonds of trust between the two leaders. Some consolidation among medical agencies is inevitable but that’s not what this move was about. Both parties recognised quickly where our operations overlapped and also where our expanded presence could create opportunities and advantages for
What are transaction?
your plans following the
MLA’s highly regarded reputation in the field of occupation- related claims, including those covering asbestosis, vibration white finger and dermatological injuries as well as its market leading status where noise induced hearing loss is concerned is, of course, something we’ll be leveraging in the coming months. Across Speed Medical as a whole, we are continuing to differentiate ourselves by developing innovative partnerships, broadening our suite of added- value services to sit alongside our core offer, emphasising the importance of early intervention rehabilitation and increasingly developing bespoke system to system technologies that will help us underline our growing dominance in the marketplace.
Q
What are your thoughts and predictions within your sector for 2013 and beyond?
Greater challenges and more need to innovate if you want to thrive rather than merely survive. Customers will need partners like us to be faster and more efficient than ever in order to help them compete successfully. We’ll broaden our portfolio of services and I’m not ruling out further acquisitions. Technological progress, government reforms and the threats posed by non-traditional competitors will intensify for all of the industry’s players. One thing is certain, we’ll continue to think differently, focus on what’s really important and take risks in line with our long-term vision for the business.
UK
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