About us: testimonials
Whiteley’s (Leaded Lights) Ltd.
Double glazing firm bosses Mark Thornton and Richard Little say they have never looked back since becoming Lambert Roper & Horsfield clients. Now they are looking forward to a bright future, which includes plans for a move to bigger premises.
Mark and Richard both joined Leeds-based Whiteley’s (Leaded Lights) Ltd, a family-owned business founded in 1981, straight from school. They worked their way up through the company and when the Whiteley family decided to sell, they bought the business in April 2003.
During the buy-out, they were represented by a Halifax-based accountant. When he suffered serious ill health a year or so later, which prevented him continuing his work, he put them in touch with Lambert Roper & Horsfield, where they have developed an excellent working relationship with Keith Lyons.
Mark says: “We’ve never looked back since meeting Keith. Richard and I had a shop floor background and were relatively new to running a business, so we had lots of questions and queries. Keith was very accommodating and broke it all down for us in a very simple way, without ever being condescending.”
The business, which employs 13 staff, sells mainly to the trade and prides itself in its expertise and experience in leaded lights – the modern equivalent of stained glass. Day-to-day financial issues and payroll are dealt with in-house, with Keith providing six-monthly management accounts, annual accounts, advice on tax issues – for example, the benefits of taking dividends rather than salary – and wide-ranging business coaching.
Mark particularly values the way Keith uses clear, user-friendly charts, graphs and tables to present financial information in the management accounts or to illustrate the relationship between percentage changes in pricing and the resulting profits, for example. He says: “It’s really simple and that’s the way we like it.
“Keith doesn’t say you should do this or that but he explains all the implications of the different choices and leaves us to make up our own minds. That advisory role is really useful, so now that we’re thinking about moving to bigger premises in a couple of years, with a trade counter, we’ll talk to Keith about whether to buy or lease.
“The service we get from Lambert Roper & Horsfield is very proactive and very efficient. When we started working with Keith we weren’t very clued up about running a business, so we were a bit of a blank canvas for him – but I think he’s enjoyed the experience!”
