Alan  

Hello, my name is Alan Weston, and beside me is Nick Frank. We jointly created a company called Weston-Cummins Ltd., which we ran for about 33 years before joining HFMC Wealth.

Nick

We thought the time had come to sell the business for a number of reasons, but primarily because time was passing and we were ageing. It was important to find a good home for our clients and for our staff, and to find meaningful remuneration for ourselves. 

Selling the business filled us with a degree of dread insofar as it was the first time we’d ever sold our business, which tends to be the case, so we weren’t sure what to expect.

Alan  

When we were researching the market, we went through a broker. We were looking for a family business – one that wasn’t necessarily supported by private equity. We wanted to nestle our family business into a larger organisation that would take our clients and staff forward.

Nick

They were very approachable and realistic in their conversations with us in advance of the purchase. There were a large number of synergies between the two companies; lots of the systems we used were the same. Unlike many other companies, they were really good at also discussing what would happen the day after the sale had gone through, and what the immediate future would be thereafter.

Alan  

When we started Weston-Cummins some 33 years ago, we valued our independence, and we wanted to join up with a company that had a similar process and understanding, and HFMC Wealth seemed to fit that bill very closely. 

The communication was brilliant. The integration was unbelievable, and three years in, the integration continues at a pace that we feel extremely comfortable with. We couldn’t have asked for anything better when we were joining up.

Nick

One of the surprises about the process of being bought is inevitably you think that the buyer is going to say whatever they need to say in order to make the vendor happy, and you fully expect things to be different when it comes to the reality of life afterwards; to my delight and surprise, they’ve kept all of their promises and done everything they said they were going to do. 

Alan  

When you sell your company, you’re selling it for the very first time, and hopefully, the only time, so you’re learning all the way through. There were questions that we had to ask, which may have seemed quite straightforward to most people, but we needed to understand the answers to those questions. Doing a share purchase agreement is a big undertaking for anybody, and to have all the answers that we needed was appreciated. We found that both the lawyers and HFMC Wealth dovetailed quite nicely to help us and guide us through the whole process.

Nick

The great support that we got from HFMC Wealth during the sales process was that they came along to visit us in our offices and talk through individual sections. Not everything had to be completed by interminable drop boxes and form-filling; we could actually explain things face to face. That made a huge difference and was a great time-saver.

Alan  

Since the sale of Weston-Cummins, the integration has been unbelievable. We’ve had tremendous support throughout. The contracts that Weston-Cummins have set up for our clients have remained the same, and as a result, we feel that we’re almost record-breaking by having 100% of our clients transferring across and staying with us throughout.

Nick

Having sold the business, the biggest relief is not having to worry about the compliance side that we had to bear full responsibility for previously, and also running everything else – the IT, HR, the payroll, and all of those other things you have when you’re running your own company. We’ve been able to let go of that and just get on with looking after our clients and our team, who have stayed with us. It’s been really exciting from that perspective.

Alan  

One of the best things about having sold the company shares is the overall responsibility that comes off your shoulders and is placed onto the management of HFMC, allowing us to devote more time and energy to the job that we’re so familiar with, which is looking after our clients.

Nick

I cannot think of a reason why I wouldn’t recommend HFMC Wealth to anybody else who’s interested in selling. It’s been a great home for us, for our staff, and our clients.