Northern Insight catches up with Peter Cromarty who talks about the last ten years in business.
You’re celebrating CCBS Group’s 10th birthday this year! What are some of the most significant milestones and challenges that have shaped the business over the years?
So many to choose from – as the business started from me working from a home office and now has a team with over 125 years of lending experience. The most significant I would say was making the initial decision to start the business, after receiving positive support from family and key business contacts. Then came the build phase, from the first recruit Matt Lister to the most recent Michael Horner. The challenges keep coming, as any business owner knows, but the milestones are there to remind you of what’s been achieved along the journey.
You’ve had year on year growth every year for 10 years, what do you think the key to success has been?
That’s really a big achievement for the business, and it comes with clarity, focus and a quality team. The last 10 years has been a real evolution; we have tried different things but we always play to our strengths and what has made us successful individually in our careers to date. We are currently working on the next phase, honing our culture, purpose and team spirit which will keep us moving forward.
You have worked on hundreds of deals over the last decade – do you have any memorable ones you can share which show what CCBS is all about?
I always like the deals that make a huge difference to our clients. These are often transactional deals like MBOs or acquisitions. We have also completed deals overseas where we have supported clients’ global growth aspirations. All deals are different which is why our work is so varied and interesting.
How has the industry changed since you started, and how have you had to adapt?
When CCBS launched in 2014, the business world was coming out of the darkness that was the banking crisis of 2008. The funding landscape dramatically changed then forever. We naively thought then that nothing like that would ever hit us again, yet we have had political instability, Brexit, a pandemic and war in Europe to contend with. Uncertainty is never good in the finance world and the big banks don’t like that. Our job is to therefore navigate that funding landscape to find the right deal for our clients, even when it’s very challenging.
As a small business owner, you’re often wearing a lot of different ‘hats’ – what has been the biggest learning curve?
We work with clients on their business plans and growth aspirations, and over the last 10 years we have also been on our own journey. So, the old adage of ‘life is not easy. If it was, it would be a holiday’ is as relevant in business as it is in life. Scaling a business brings its own pressures but has some real highs when you achieve what you set out to do. The bar always gets higher though!
Looking ahead to the next ten years, what would you like to achieve and what impact would you like to have in the North East business community?
We’ve built our business supporting other North East businesses to take their next steps, whether that’s something positive, or something more challenging or unexpected. Looking ahead to the next ten years, we will continue to add to our services, learning all the time, so that we can maintain our excellent network and find innovative solutions for clients. We recently opened an office in Teesside which has been great for the team and our network, so who knows where else we’ll be in the next decade? How and where we support clients might change – especially with technological advancements in the funding sector moving at pace – but we will always be at the end of the phone for that initial call from a business who needs us.
ccbsg.co.uk