Member Article

Behind the business with Nick Swales of Rathbone Investment Management in Newcastle

It’s now a year since Rathbone Investment Management opened their Newcastle office - encouraged by the hotbed of entpreneurial activity in the North East. Here, regional director Nick Swales takes Bdaily behind the business.

When did you open the Newcastle office?

It is just over a year since Rathbones opened its office in Grey Street in Newcastle upon Tyne. Although it had offices in Edinburgh, Kendal, and Liverpool, it didn’t have an ‘on the ground’ presence to serve the North East’s fast-growing entrepreneurial sector as well as its traditional wealth, charities and corporate pensions.

I understand Rathbones is new to the region but how long is the company’s history?

The original business started in 1742 in Liverpool. However, its development into one of the country’s leading wealth managers really started in the mid-1980s. Since then, from its ancestral home in Liverpool and the office in London required for access to the Stock Exchange, the company has added a further 12 offices with Newcastle being the latest. Today, it is a thriving and well-respected FTSE 250 business.

How have you been welcomed to Newcastle?

Many of the team are in fact originally from Newcastle. I have spent 27 years working in stockbroking and wealth management in the city. Three other senior colleagues – James Garbutt, James Kyle and Kirstie McKeown – have also spent their whole careers advising clients on financial matters while being based in the region. Other members of the team have joined from either other institutions in the city or other Rathbones offices.

What is Rathbones’ proposition?

Rathbones offers a high-quality personal investment management service. Clients have direct access to the person managing their money, which results in strong, long-term relationships – I believe this leads to better service and gives clients peace of mind. The well-researched investment process supports, but doesn’t control, the decision-making of experienced investment managers. I believe a bespoke approach from the investment manager using his or her judgement and experience with some guidance from the centre produces better results for clients than centrally-imposed models. In our chairman’s words, “we provide a bespoke service to our clients rather than selling a product”.

What services can you provide to entrepreneurs?

We offer a wide range of services. Wealth management is by its nature dependent upon wealth being created in the first place. We pride ourselves on working alongside business people and entrepreneurs as they develop their businesses. We have extensive experience in working together with other advisors to assist those in business to maximise their growth potential.

Often being a senior business manager or entrepreneur is a lonely position, but we stand with our clients from the start and can often introduce them to other entrepreneurs in the local area. As businesses grow, the senior people involved start to acquire wealth and we are there to take care of their hard-earned assets for them while they focus on growing the business even more. Ultimately, when they retire or sell their businesses, they need other assistance and we can provide advice regarding their financial future.

We are very focused on the region being self-sustaining and believe we can help the region grow. We offer vast experience and first rate, highly-respected investment managers that can work alongside the region’s excellent legal, accountancy and corporate finance services.

What empathy do you have towards entrepreneurs?

We run a business too and appreciate the trials and tribulations involved. Many of our team also have senior voluntary positions in significant third sector businesses. For example, I am chairman of the Percy Hedley Foundation, which provides services to disabled people, and is one of the largest charities in the North East. The foundation has a turnover of more than £20 million and employs over 700 people.

As chairman, I have experience of all of the issues that are involved in running an enterprise of this scale and therefore I have great empathy with business people in a similar position. Other colleagues are involved in similar ventures and therefore have similar experience which they can share.

What was the best investment you ever made?

The best investment I made on behalf of my clients was being involved in the team that placed Sage. At the time it was a small software company based in Newcastle upon Tyne trying to raise a small amount of capital to grow. The clients that took the advice to get involved then saw the company grow rapidly and end up as a FTSE 100 constituent.

Finally, do you feel that you have made the progress that you wanted to in your first year?

Rome wasn’t built in a day and our business will take some time to become fully established. However, at the end of the first year I am pleased to say that we have exceeded our expectations for the business. It is clear that what we offer appeals to a wide range of clients. The highly-experienced team in the Newcastle office gives clients a bespoke, personal investment management service and this is appealing to individuals, families and trustees across the North East. I am pleased to say that our flexibility and personal approach enabled the initial phase of the business’s development to be successful. We have already taken on extra support staff and I am in the process of recruiting more at present.

You can contact Nick at Rathbones’ Newcastle office on 0191 255 1440 or at nick.swales@rathbones.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .