RiDO Rotherham Investment & Development Office

A South Yorkshire firm of “company doctors” is celebrating a successful first nine months of improving business patients’ health.

Moorhead Savage also hopes to put insolvency work in a better light – its expertise has helped companies turn around their business fortunes.

Based at Rotherham’s Moorgate Crofts Business Centre, the company is the only licensed firm of insolvency professionals based in Rotherham, and despite the fact that the term insolvency professional may seem somewhat negative, its focus is to help owners turn their businesses around, rather than to wind up insolvent businesses.

The firm is led by Dr Paul Moorhead, a licensed Insolvency Practitioner with many years’ experience of helping struggling businesses and over-indebted individuals.

He explained the company’s philosophy: “Our aim is to work with business owners to find solutions that will enable the business to be preserved, to retain the jobs and skills and to provide the best opportunity for future growth.

“Owners are often surprised that there are a number of ways of saving a struggling business. In some cases it’s about finding new funding options to help companies that are lacking working capital, and therefore to avoid insolvency. Enquiries to the business have increased by over 400% in the past three months, and it’s good that we’re able to help so many companies.”

Dr Moorhead has a PhD in insolvency law from Lancaster University, holds the Joint Insolvency Examination Board (JIEB) qualification, is licensed by the Insolvency Practitioners Association and is also a member of the Association of Business Recovery Professionals (R3). Backing him is an experienced team whose goal is to provide high quality, professional, impartial and ethical help and advice.

Moorhead Savage moved into Moorgate Crofts last summer, and has seen the benefits of locating within one of the four purpose-built business centres run by Rotherham Investment & Development Office (RiDO), the Borough Council’s regeneration arm.

Dr Moorhead said: “Moorgate Crofts is a great location for our business. It’s close to Rotherham’s business district and other business professionals, and also provides both ourselves and our clients with good public transport options. There’s a good sense of community amongst businesses in the centres and we are members of the RiDO Business Owners Club. We also work closely with the RiDO business advisers and HR business consultants, and have been able to help some of their clients.

RiDO’s enterprise manager, Geoff Link, said; “Moorhead Savage is the kind of high-quality, knowledge-based business that we continue to attract into our business centres – they provide an invaluable service at a professional level."

RiDO provides more than 180 low-cost offices and workspaces for start-up and small businesses in business centres across the borough. All offer high-quality full secretarial and administrative support services. The survival rate for client companies for the crucial first three years is over 80%, well above the national average of 71%.

Support includes on-site business adviser support, access to training, marketing, supply-chain linkages, plus access to other partner organisations who contribute to the growth aspirations of new-start and growing businesses.