Age Partnership plans to expand into new services

Age Partnership is expanding into annuities, life cover and home insurance sales in order to meet the demands of the baby boomer generation.

The firm, based in Leeds, will report record equity release figures this year as the faltering economic recovery prompts Britons to consider ways to generate cash. It is on course to release in the region of 175m of equity this year, up from 140m.

Mr Thirkill, one of Yorkshire's most successful businessmen, who turned around Ultralase before it was sold in 2005, said Age Partnership now has an 18 per cent share of the equity release market, where it is up against life and pensions giant Aviva.

Age Partnership will offer its new services as an intermediary, rather than as a provider.

Its annuity service had a "soft launch" this autumn and is also offering home insurance. Its life cover is due to be introduced in April.

Its equity release business has grown quickly since it was set up in 2004, despite competing with more established financial services firms, and Mr Thirkill – a former advertising sales rep at the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post – is confident Age Partnership can use that experience to get a foothold in new markets.

"We have done very well in a short time so we should be in a better position to do well – although we don't take anything for granted."

As baby boomers come to retirement age there will be people who have been in the housing market for 30 years and who want to generate some money without taking on traditional loans, said Mr Thirkill, the chairman of Age Partnership.

This creates a growing market for his firm as the perception of equity release changes, driven in part by regulation which was introduced by the Government in 2005.

"People think we are lenders of last resort but we are not.

"They use the money to improve or maintain their home – it can be a liberating experience.

"It is a good well-rounded financial tool.

"We see people in London with 700,000 homes who do not have a mortgage but they need essential maintenance for their home."

The firm has seen the average value of its equity release cases fall even as it has grown while the shrinking of the banking sector, and the changing perception of equity release, has created more opportunities to hire staff skilled in financial services, Mr Thirkill said.

"When we started the people we wanted were working for banks and they said 'no chance' to coming to work for us."

Turnover for the calendar year of 2009 was 4.4m and the firm wants to raise its profile. It is currently the number two equity release firm in Britain and is the top over-the-phone specialist, Mr Thirkill said.

"We are spending a seven-figure sum on marketing and much more.

"The brand is starting to get some direction."

Mr Thirkill, who was born in Leeds, has established and sold a number of businesses over the last 20 years.

He became a director and shareholder of Ultralase in 2003 after he was appointed by its venture capital provider to help turn it around.

Two years later it was sold for 30m and in 2008 it went for 175m in a management buy-out.

His regular business partner, David Hood, founded Pace Micro Technology in the 1980s and helped to drive the company's growth up to its flotation in 1996.

As well as being co-founder of online local search company Infoserve, Mr Hood also owns and operates Multiflight, an aircraft charter, training and engineering company based at Leeds Bradford Airport.

The two men have set up Freedom Back Clinics, a network of high street chiropractor and osteopath clinics, which opened its first branches last year in the North of England.

The freedom to grow

Freedom Back Clinics carried out 10,000 treatments in its first year in Leeds, which covers the period to September and is aiming for 20 per cent growth in year two.

The company, whose appointment slots run from the very start to the end of the day to make it easier for office workers to use them, hopes to have six branches up and running by the end of next year.

Its Manchester site is due to open in a listed Victorian building overlooking Albert Square in January, providing planning issues have been resolved, and it is targeting 10,000 treatments in the first year of its Canary Wharf site.