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company originally founded in the back room of a car salesroom has taken over a unique space that will help it grow to more than 150 employees in the next few years, from the 90 it currently has. That company is Moneybarn, a specialist in the near-prime and subprime finance markets founded in 1992.
Under the management of Peter Minter, the business has continued to work with the strong moral attitude of its founders and increased its diligence in lending. So successful has the approach been that the business has now grown to the point where it needed to find new premises. The search ended with the lease of The New Barn, which marks the third stage in the life of Moneybarn.
Moneybarn has spent the past nine years in a converted 15th-century barn, and four years ago expanded into another converted building, a Victorian railway station. The new building covers 20,000 square feet, and after a two-month refit has more than enough space to accommodate Moneybarn’s existing staff.
The building has been outfitted with the comfort of its staff at its core. “The three things I’ve focused on in terms of staff are air, light, and chairs,” Minter said. “So we got people good chairs, they can breathe good air, and they can see what they are doing and they are comfortable all day.”
Following the old adage that a happy workforce is a productive workforce, the firm feels that the move will be a springboard to even greater success. The business has met all its objectives, exceeded targets across sales and new business, and has made profit before tax for 2013 of £5.9 million ($10.1 million). In 2012, profit was just more than £1 million ($1.7 million).
