Client stories

Friska

Company bio:  Founded in Bristol but expanding nationally, Friska offers seasonal, ethically sourced fresh food to eat in, take away or for office catering.  The company received £3m of investment in 2017 from YFM equity Partners to finance its planned roll out. 

Founders: With previous experience in food retail, economics and technology, Ed Brown and Griff Holland have been able to create an exceptional restaurant chain: great, healthy food backed up by impressive proprietary technology to run things efficiently and engage successfully with their customers.

how we’ve helped: we have worked with Ed and Griff since shortly after they founded Friska in 2009. Since then we have advised them through the various steps of their fund raising - initially funding from friends and family, then angel investment and most recently private equity.

Location: Bristol

Blu Wireless

Company bio: Blu Wireless’ technology enables ultra-high speed, carrier-grade, multi-Gbit communications. Delivering intelligent chip IP at its core, Blu Wireless has much more to offer, with expertise in everything from chip design to module and board design. The Blu Wireless team have engineered a managed approach to the technical challenges faced in mmWave carrier-grade applications such as combatting interference and enabling seamless co-existence.

Capable of being used in everything from homes and offices with poor connectivity, to high-speed transport, to public broadband in densely populated towns and cities, Blu Wireless is attracting interest globally.  Having been named by the European Commission as a key innovator and selected by the UK's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to run two 5G testbed projects as part of the UK's 5G Strategy, Blu Wireless’ technology looks set to become an important part of the digital infrastructure in the future.

Founders: Three highly experienced engineers, Henry Nurser, Ray McConnell and Mark Barrett have been involved in the design of multiple technologies and the grant of numerous patents.  Having had senior roles at leading microelectronic companies (STMicroelectronics and others) and start-ups, they have been responsible for designing and bringing complex technology to market.                   

How we’ve helped: There has been a large number of potential applications for Blu Wireless’ technology and we have worked closely with them on these licensing arrangements.  Blu Wireless has secured substantial investment from ARM Holdings, venture capital and private investors and we have advised on each of these investments. 

Location: Bristol

Curtis Banks

Key Facts:

• Founded in 2009 - now the UK’s leading independent provider of Self Invested Personal Pension schemes (SIPP)
• IPO on AIM in 2015, valued at c.£85million on admission
• Acquired the Suffolk Life group of companies from Legal & General for £45million in January 2016

Key People: Rupert Curtis, Paul Tarran and Will Self 

How we’ve helped:

We have been working with Curtis Banks since 2011 and have advised the group in connection with:

• its admission to AIM in 2015
• numerous acquisitions, including the acquisition of Suffolk Life
• procurement and commercial agreements
• employee incentives
• corporate governance issues

Location: Bristol

GL Assessment

Key Facts:

• founded in 1981, providing benchmarking, formative and diagnostic assessments to schools
• pioneer of digital assessments, delivered over 7 million online tests across the globe
• backed by Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, a US private equity house

Key People:  Greg Watson and Rob Dargue

How we’ve helped:

We have been working with GL since 2008.  Because we have a good understanding of the business and a long-term relationship with a number of people within the group, we have been able to assist throughout.  Our work has included advising on:

• distribution and agency agreements
• customer and supplier contracts
• data protection and GDPR
• numerous strategic acquisitions by the group
• refinancings of the group
• company secretarial and governance issues

Location: London

Daredevil (Duel)

Company bio:  Duel is a customer advocacy marketing platform, helping brands and retailers sell more by turning their customers into advocates. It then uses this advocacy to build emotional connection and make every element of their marketing, advertising, and eCommerce more effective.  A graduate of the Webstart Bristol incubator, Duel has won multiple plaudits from the marketing industry and tech community alike.  It was selected for the Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator Program and the Publicis 90 start-up programme.

Founder: Paul Archer founded Duel after returning from a trip around the world in a black cab (yes, really, you can read about it here).  Duel evolved from Daredevil Project, an app studio and mischievous photo challenge events company.

How we’ve helped: We’ve helped guide Duel though numerous funding rounds and helped ensure it has the necessary agreements in place with its customers and partners.

Location: London and Bristol

GoFaster Food

Company bio:  Go Faster Food’s vision is to inspire and help people.  Through best-selling food books, endorsed by athletes and nutritionists, the company has built a global community of active people who love its food.  In 2016, Kate Percy's Go Bites®, was launched a delicious and natural energy snack, now stocked in major multiples as well as independents.

Founders: Kate Percy and Mark Bolton-Jones.  The genesis of GoFasterFood was when Kate radically altered her family’s diet to help her husband, Mark, who was struggling in his training for the New York Marathon.   Roll forward a few years (and many marathons), after running a successful Sports Sponsorship Agency, Mark joined Kate in building GoFasterFood.

How we’ve helped: We’ve helped the company complete its initial funding and advised it on its manufacturing and distribution agreements. 

Location: Bristol

Kinderly

Company bio:  Kinderly has developed an app that makes it quick and easy for Early Years Childcare Practitioners to capture and share children’s learning journeys, without the need for paperwork.  Through a partnership with the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Year (PACEY), Kinderly is now used by an ever-growing number of nurseries and other childcare practitioners in the UK and is attracting interest in numerous other countries.

Founder: Prior to founding Kinderly, Geraint Barton worked for 15 years as a bioinformatician at Imperial College & the University of York, developing data analysis pipelines, software and visualisations for bio-medical research scientists.

How we’ve helped: Kinderly has received venture capital and private investment, including from Downing Ventures and the Development Bank of Wales.  We have advised the company on these investments and also in relation to its commercial agreements and GDPR.

Location: Newport

Numerable

Company bio: Numerable helps Financial Directors, CFOs and accountants quickly produce effective accounting reports and presentations, including analysis and advice. It is an innovative cloud solution that instantly generates interactive visualisations from company accounts and spreadsheets, imported from Xero and Excel. So colleagues and clients can better understand their accounts - and make smarter business decisions.

Founder: Martin Coulthard has founded, grown and sold two successful tech businesses: Surface Inspection Ltd (automatic ceramic tile inspection systems) and Stonecube Ltd (dynamic print visualisation software).

How we’ve helped: We’ve been working with Numerable since shortly after it was founded and have helped put in place the essential legals for a start-up including agreements with contractors and employees and T&Cs.

Location: Bristol

Blu Wireless

Company bio:

Blu Wireless’ technology enables ultra-high speed, carrier-grade, multi-Gbit communications. Delivering intelligent chip IP at its core, Blu Wireless has much more to offer, with expertise in everything from chip design to module and board design. The Blu Wireless team have engineered a managed approach to the technical challenges faced in mmWave carrier-grade applications such as combatting interference and enabling seamless co-existence.

Capable of being used in everything from homes and offices with poor connectivity, to high-speed transport, to public broadband in densely populated towns and cities, Blu Wireless is attracting interest globally.  Having been named by the European Commission as a key innovator and selected by the UK's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to run two 5G testbed projects as part of the UK's 5G Strategy, Blu Wireless’ technology looks set to become an important part of the digital infrastructure in the future.

Founders: Three highly experienced engineers, Henry Nurser, Ray McConnell and Mark Barrett have been involved in the design of multiple technologies and the grant of numerous patents.  Having had senior roles at leading microelectronic companies (STMicroelectronics and others) and start-ups, they have been responsible for designing and bringing complex technology to market.                     

How we’ve helped:

There has been a large number of potential applications for Blu Wireless’ technology and we have worked closely with them on these licensing arrangements.  Blu Wireless has secured substantial investment from ARM Holdings, venture capital and private investors and we have advised on each of these investments. 

Location: Bristol

Rebellion

Key Facts:

•  one of Europe’s leading independent video game developers & publishers
•  developed numerous successful games including Alien vs Predator, Rogue Trooper, Sniper Elite and Battlezone
•  publishers of extensive collection of exciting comics and books, most notably 2000 AD, Solaris & Abaddon
•  with formation of Rebellion Productions in 2017, group now includes TV and film production

Key People:  Jason Kingsley OBE and Chris Kingsley

How we’ve helped:

Our work with Rebellion illustrates how we like to collaborate with others to ensure our clients get rounded advice.  We were introduced to Rebellion in 2005 by Sarassin LLP, a legal and business affairs consultancy for video games businesses. Since then we have worked with Sarassin to help Rebellion complete a number of acquisitions and investments, including:

•  the purchases of two games developers (Core Design and Strangelite), transactions which made Rebellion the largest independent European development studio
•  acquiring the Solaris book publishing imprint from Games Workshop
•  the acquisition of Radiant Worlds, a transaction which saw Rebellion grow to over 300 employees

Location: Oxford

Premier Vets

Key Facts:

• leading provider to the veterinary sector of preventative programmes for pets in the UK, Europe and the US
• listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2015 (ticker code PVG)
• the group now has in excess of 1,000 veterinary hospital relationships across the globe

Key People:  Dominic Tonner, Will Evans

How we’ve helped:

We have actively supported PVA for over 6 years, from early stage, through its growth and disposals. This has included advising on:

• a number of acquisitions
• disposals, including the sale of their veterinary surgeries in 2016 and the buying group in 2017 
• funding
• commercial contracts and introducing PVA to overseas lawyers to assist with international expansion

Location: Bristol

Vysiion

Key Facts:

• delivers integrated technology solutions to private & public sector organisations
• received £4m of growth capital from Business Growth Fund
• with a heritage back to 1971, has a proven track record in the delivery and support of critical infrastructure

Key People: Bruce Brain, Peter Clapton and Scott Paton

How we’ve helped:  We started working with RFL in 2008 and have continued to do so since it became Vysiion in 2015. We have advised in connection with:

• numerous acquisitions, including IT Solutions and JAD Integrated Services
• 2015 investment by the Business Growth Fund
• share options and employee incentives
• share issues
• company secretarial and corporate governance

​Location: Chippenham

Friska

Company bio:  Founded in Bristol but expanding nationally, Friska offers seasonal, ethically sourced fresh food to eat in, take away or for office catering.  The company received £3m of investment in 2017 from YFM equity Partners to finance its planned roll out. 

Founders: With previous experience in food retail, economics and technology, Ed Brown and Griff Holland have been able to create an exceptional restaurant chain: great, healthy food backed up by impressive proprietary technology to run things efficiently and engage successfully with their customers.

How we’ve helped: we have worked with Ed and Griff since shortly after they founded Friska in 2009. Since then we have advised them through the various steps of their fund raising - initially funding from friends and family, then angel investment and most recently private equity.

Location: Bristol

Solar Communications

Key Facts: 

• designs, deploys and supports communications technology for more than 1,700 business customers in the UK
• included in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100, Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500, the London Stock Exchange’s ‘1000 Companies to Inspire Britain’
• founded in 1988, merged with Drumbeat in 2007 and has grown rapidly since, now recognised as an industry leader
• acquired by Wavenet Group in 2018, a cloud communications company backed by Beech Tree private equity

Key People: Mark Colquhoun, John Whitty and Andrew Marshall

How we’ve helped: Solar is one of a number of businesses in the telecoms sector we have worked with.  We were first introduced to the business in 2005 when we advised Mark Colquhoun on his sale of Call Options UK.  Drumbeat Communications began trading after the sale of Call Options and in 2007 we advised on its merger with Solar, a transaction which saw the enlarged group come under Mark’s ownership.   Since then, we have worked continuously with Mark and the business, right up to and including their recent sale:

• advice on customer and supplier contracts and partnership agreements
• acquisition of Armstrong Communications in 2012, which saw Solar expand into the North West and become a nationally recognised industry leader
• acquisitions of Denwa and RDC in 2016 and TWL and Fairford in 2017
• advice on group reorganisations and governance
• sale to Wavenet Group in 2018

Location: Chippenham

Westleigh Investments

Key Facts: Investor committed to providing positive support to small and medium sized businesses. Companies in which Westleigh and its directors hold controlling interests include:

• Boston Tea Party, a well known chain of coffee shops now expanding outside the South West
• WCBS, the leading provider of information management systems to schools
• CCI, the UK’s leading manufacturer of clay pigeons
• ATL, a UK based manufacturers of telecom equipment

Key People: Giles Clarke, Nick Harrison

How we’ve helped:

Roxburgh Milkins has been working with Westleigh and its directors for over 15 years.  We have advised:

• Westleigh and its directors on numerous acquisitions (including Boston Tea Party, WCBS and CCI)
• WCBS on an acquisition and customer, supplier, reseller and licence agreements
• CCI on an investment in Promatic maker of clay shooting traps
• on shareholder, governance and company secretarial issues

Location: South West and Wales