→

Poole Waterfield success stories

Over nearly six decades we have helped many hundreds of clients with thousands of special projects, which are all in addition to the more regular services we provide. These have taken many forms but they all have one common theme; they have all added value to our clients by helping them to achieve their goals and often solving problems that have kept them awake at night. We take everything we do for our clients seriously, from the most routine task to solving the most challenging and complex of problems, but it is the special cases that shine a light on the kind of difference we can make to our clients’ businesses and even their lives. 

Here are a few recent cases where we and our clients feel we made a really positive difference:

Property development and investment company – Land Remediation Relief Claim
When one of our property company clients recently acquired a large industrial site we immediately looked into the reliefs that might be available. They weren’t eligible for Business Premises Renovation Allowance (this is a really useful relief and we have successfully applied it to help a number of clients) but we established that much of the site contained asbestos, so we advised our client that the costs of removing that would potentially make a Land Remediation Relief claim available to them. LRR is a great relief that gives a 150% uplift on the cost of the removal of certain contaminants and this uplifted cost can be set against profits when calculating the company’s tax liability. Because of what we were able to identify and the work we did in making the claim our clients saved a six figure sum.

Professional Services Businesses - Merger
Sometimes it is possible to kill two birds with one stone. When one of our clients discussed with us their expansion plans (and their frustration at not being able to progress them) it occurred to us that an introduction to another of our clients in a very similar sector, who we knew to be looking for an exit, might be of mutual benefit. We saw that this was a great opportunity for both as we knew their respective businesses and their cultures would be compatible. It was a real win/win situation. Naturally we made sure that both sides were properly and independently advised to ensure that the merger proceeded smoothly. We now work with the combined business which we are confident will go from strength to strength, and with two very happy clients! 

Manufacturing Company – Research and Development Claim
R & D claims are not just for rocket scientists! That is sometimes one of the obstacles we need to overcome when discussing these claims with clients; they are often just too modest about what their businesses achieve and how “cutting edge” many of them are in terms of technology. R & D is another claim which gives an uplift on relevant expenditure, currently up to 230%. Of course, not every business has the same opportunity to take advantage of this relief, but one manufacturing client took quite a lot of convincing that his business did indeed qualify. We pointed out that what he considered to be “simply tinkering with how we do things” was actually a rather sophisticated research and development programme. That client is now a convert as he has invested the proceeds of the relief into yet more tinkering with how they do things!
 
Professional Services Business – Turnaround
Success is a relative concept. For some clients it is about wealth protection or managing growth. Some are in a less fortunate position and they just need to get their business through a crisis. We recently started to act for a professional services business who frankly were in a bit of a pickle. We could see that the people were great at what they did for their customers but there wasn’t a coherent business plan: what there was plenty of was debt and expense and they were running out of time. They were, in fact, peering over the edge of a cliff and they needed a lot of help. Our focus was to give them direction and this needed a well thought out business plan and budget, which also identified areas where savings could be made quickly. We then prepared a specific plan for each area of debt, including securing sensible time to pay arrangements and even some repayment holidays. This has given them the time and space to get their business on a proper footing. They are now in a position where, instead of crisis management, they can plan to develop their business with some confidence and control. There is a way to go but they are on the right path.
 
 
  sucessstories successstories
Contact Us

Category: David Gibbens Blog Author: David Gibbens, Director, Poole Waterfield