Background
Howarths is a well-established, family-run business based in Cleckheaton. Founded in 2003 by Andy and Helen Howarth, Howarths is a second-generation family run business, becoming the leading people consultancy across Legal, Safety and HR Growth.
Now under the leadership of CEO, Gavin Howarth, CFO Tracey Hopkins and Chief Legal Officer Charlotte Geesin, the company has cultivated a strong culture, with values of graft, togetherness, heart and grit. They emphasise both growth and employee wellbeing, and it’s this approach that has contributed to Howarths maintaining a friendly, personal touch while managing complex, large-scale projects.
The challenge
Howarths has ambitions to grow and improve its EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation), a key metric that reflects a company’s core profitability by focusing on operating performance. To make sure it was on the right track, they created 10 key performance indicators (KPIs). However, there was some uncertainty whether the KPIs fully encompassed the critical data needed to accurately measure and track growth.
The company wanted to explore whether its financial strategies and forecasting processes were capturing all the necessary information required to create robust growth parameters and measure progress.
The solution
Through our fully funded service, we carried out a comprehensive diagnostic of the business before providing a match-funded grant of £1,100 to enable Howarths to work with an expert financial consultant.
The consultant worked closely with Howarths to review the KPIs before developing an integrated financial strategy, enhanced financial tracking, more automated processes and comprehensive data capture.
The project delivered a detailed management board strategy focusing on enhanced financial tracking, ensuring accurate decision-making that supports both current and future growth objectives. A new contract data sheet has been introduced, enabling the business to review all cases from a financial perspective, with the goal of improving client retention and fostering greater stability and growth.
The impact
Howarths’ senior leadership team is now confident it has the right KPIs, data-capture processes and overall financial strategy in place to ensure growth and achieve its target EBITDA. With this sound foundation in place, the company has taken on four new employees and is in an excellent position for continued, sustainable growth. Additionally, this anticipated growth has led to the creation of an additional four new roles.
“The support and consultancy provided through the funded initiative gives us confidence we have a robust, detailed and future-proof strategy in place, providing a clear pathway for sustained, continued growth.
Our focus is very much on providing the best service to our clients, and the KPIs, tracking and data capture allows us to home in on the areas we need to improve on, or amplify. We’re already seeing the benefit, having expanded our business with key strategic hires to help with our client focus and growth. I would highly recommend West Yorkshire Business Boost. ”
Tracy Hopkins, CFO, Howarths