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Bristol consultancy Jelf’s buy-and-build strategy has led to an impressive increase in revenues, but this is just one example of the growth in corporate activity in the southwest. Mark Dunne reports.

Corporate consultancy Jelf Group plc has had a busy year. The Bristol-based group has acquired five companies since last June to strengthen its operations in southern England.

Jelf, which provides commercial insurance, healthcare and employee benefit expertise, has increased its turnover by 128% to £17.1 million in the six months to April compared to the same period last year.

It all started last June when the group bought Oxford-based Cherwell Insurance Management. Cherwell, which is a general insurance broker, added income premiums of more than £4.5 million to Jelf’s business.

A month later it continued this strategy by acquiring Chippenham-based asset finance broker Auto Business Solutions. By the end of the year, Jelf added independent commercial insurance broker Haines Wallace Insurance Brokers to its portfolio. The Plymouth company has since merged with the group’s other Westcountry operations in Newton Abbot and Taunton.

Jelf’s chief executive Alex Alway said: “The deal supports our strategy to be the leading corporate consultancy in the South of England and Wales, while once again emphasising the group’s credentials as the fastest growing insurance broking business in the southwest.”

Jelf’s enthusiasm for deal making reflects the growing buoyancy of the southwest’s private sector. A recent survey published by The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) claims the region has achieved record growth since the bank started collating data more than 10 years ago.

RBS economist Robbie Denoon said: “The southwest’s private sector economy is flying, with activity rising at a record pace in May and confirming the region as the fastest growing in the UK. Moreover, latest data implies that companies expect this strong rate of expansion to be maintained as they registered a survey high increase in employment. Input price inflation remains stubbornly high, but is lower than elsewhere in the UK.”

Other deals that have helped boost the growth in the region’s deal making activity include Care UK’s acquisition of Little Islands, a residential children’s service based in Bristol and Wales. The health and social care specialist bought the company, which has 13 homes across the region, for an undisclosed sum.

Elsewhere in the region deals include December’s multi-million pound management buy-out of Shield Environmental Services, which was backed by debt provided by The Royal Bank of Scotland.

Companies in the southwest have also shown an appetite for the public markets with environmentally friendly plastics company Plantic Technologies raising £20 million from AIM with Bath company Nighthawk Energy securing £10 million from the market. Also raising public money was Templar Minerals, which received £9.1 million.

Another indicator of the health of the region was a drop in the number of corporate failures. In the first three months of 2007, the southwest reported an 11.9% fall in corporate insolvencies on the same period last year, according to business information and insolvency group Experian.

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