Background

Established in 1870 and now employing over 100 people, Listers Furnishing and the Lakes Home Centre continue to go from strength to strength. They have six sites across Cumbria and have an amazing ambition for growth across the North West. They provide an extensive range of goods and products ranging from furniture, home improvements, gardening and landscaping to homeware. The Managing Director Patrick Lister partly acquired the business from his father in 2003. For over 150 years, Listers has consistently provided quality products and an unrivalled service across Cumbria. Patrick has grown the business more recently to include Horizon Tile and Bathroom Centre Limited.

Visit our client here: https://www.jdlister.co.uk/

The brief

Listers wanted to engage proactive, focused, forward thinking, commercial accountants and tax advisers. Their specific requirements were:

Proactive financial help and assistance to support the internal accounts departments at the various companies
Exploration and submissions for embedded capital allowance claims with HMRC and advice on the property portfolio
Ensuring they were tax efficient in every area of the business
Potential growth via acquisition and structuring those acquisitions
Securing finance if and when needed
An adviser to simply be able to pick up the phone to and chat things through.

Our part

Assistance to support the internal accounts departments
Our initial task was to understand the various accounting packages being used across the companies and ensure they were fit for purpose. We worked closely with the accounts team to understand the reports and to make sure the data was accurate historically as well as on a day-to-day basis. The management team then had the information and reports it needed at the push of a button.

Exploration and submissions for embedded capital allowance claims with HMRC
A full review was undertaken of the capital allowances position on all the business’s commercial and investment properties. We were able to identify a sizeable amount of capital allowances that the various companies were able to take advantage of. A full capital allowances report was prepared for HMRC and a successful application was made resulting in a significant tax reduction for the group.

Ensuring they were tax efficient in every area of the business
On engagement, a full root and branch review was undertaken on the company’s financial operations to ensure everything was being undertaken in a tax efficient manner, in accordance with HMRCs guidance and legislation. A number of things were adapted and revised to ensure the organisation was taking advantage of all HMRCs initiatives, such as trivial benefits allowances for employees.

Potential growth via acquisition and structuring those acquisitions
We were fully involved in the purchase of Horizon Tile and Bathroom Centre Limited , from financial due diligence, liaison with the banks and legal teams to ensure the acquisition structure and financing was in place to make the additional acquisition. In 2018, Lister’s successfully purchased Horizon Tile and Bathroom Centre Limited to further support the company’s growth and ambition.

Securing finance if and when needed
In conjunction with the ambitious growth plans of the business, having a strong relationship with third party lenders is of utmost importance. We worked alongside the management team to leverage with third party lenders to ensure that any finance for growth was manageable in terms of length, repayment term, break clauses and interest rates negotiated.

Ongoing support

Through regular communication with Listers’ accounting departments and management teams, we are able to proactively advise the company on all areas of finance; provide a sounding board and make sure everything is tax efficient and robust along the way. The management team knows we are always on hand at any stage to provide solid, no nonsense, accurate and well researched advice.

Perrigo Consultants give us essential strategic and operational guidance in all our financial areas and it’s always good to bounce any business ideas we have off them. Very similar to ourselves as a family business, Perrigo Consultants are large enough to cope but also adaptive and very quick to respond to any support or questions we may have.

Patrick Lister - MD