Elmwood on the move with a global vision

Elmwood plans to moves its HQ from Guiseley to Leeds city centre within the next six months.

The company also hopes to open an office in Hong Kong as it defies the slump by expanding into fast growing overseas markets.

Jonathan Sands, the chairman of the £11m turnover firm, said that five years ago, “not one penny” of Elmwood’s revenue came from outside the UK. Today more than half of its revenue comes from overseas.

“That’s another reason why we are investing in Leeds,’’ he said. “We don’t want Leeds ever to be seen as not fundamentally important to our business. Leeds has been very good to us. It’s really important that we remember where we came from and put something back.”

Elmwood was founded 35 years ago by the Charles Walls Group advertising agency, which was based at Elmwood House in Calverley, Leeds. Mr Sands, who did a business course at college and then went into the advertising industry, joined five years later as a junior salesman. Within two years he was director of sales, and he rose to become deputy managing director at the age of 24.

Mr Sands has been working with Asda for 25 years since its transformation under Archie Norman.

Elmwood also recently advised farming couple Debbie and Andrew Keeble to rename their Manor Born sausages, which helped to dramatically boost sales.

Mr Sands said Elmwood planned to move the 50 staff based in Guiseley to a Leeds city centre location, possibly as early as October.

“We see Elmwood as a global business,’’ he said. “We need a global centre of excellence which will be a head office to manage the offices around the world. We also want it to be a training academy. We want to bring students from different universities around the world to take part in a summer school. Some of the best design schools now are in Asia. We want to bring some of that talent here to inspire our team. We’re involved heavily with the universities in our region.”

Apart from Yorkshire, Elmwood also has offices in London, Melbourne, New York and Singapore.

He added: “It’s almost certain we will open in Hong Kong this year as well. Asia is where so much growth is coming from. We opened in Singapore two years ago with one person, we’re now on our third office and we’ve got a dozen to 16 staff there.

“The pace of change in Asia is crazy. Singapore is a hub for south east Asia, Malaysia and India and Hong Kong is a hub for China.

“When you go abroad you have to minimise your potential potholes. We’ve always grown where it’s fundamentally an English speaking nation and an English legal system.

“I’m sure at one point we’ll be able to go to a country that isn’t based around the English language and legal system, but right now Australia, America, Singapore and Hong Kong and England all have one thing in common.”

He said more high quality staff were choosing to base themselves in Yorkshire because of the quality of life.

“People are more mobile,’’ he said. “A lot of people are moving out of London in this austere economic climate, because they can get a better quality of life and better schools, and a bigger house for their money (in Yorkshire). They can have a better pace of life. It’s not just about people having done the ‘London thing’ and coming back, more and more students are saying, ‘Why would I want to go and live in London in the first place?’

“We really like our Yorkshire clients, which include the law firm Gordons and Welcome to Yorkshire.

“We’re working with companies in mainland Europe and all over the US out of Leeds because of the skills in the office.”

Andy Wood, a partner at Grant Thornton in Leeds, who has advised Elmwood, said: “Elmwood has benefited from strong, focused leadership and is a great example of a private company with vision that has pursued an ambitious but strategic growth plan, while adapting to changing market conditions.”