Financial company to create 65 jobs in site switch

Mr Goodfellow, the former chief executive of Skipton Building Society, said that Investor Compensation, which comes under the umbrella of the Mitchell Farrar Group, is looking to recruit 65 more people to add to its 190-strong head count.

The Mitchell Farrar Group has a number of financial services companies, including Investor Compensation, and is owned by Yorkshiremen Mark Mitchell and Ben Farrar, who founded the business six-and-a-half years ago.

Investor Compensation, which focuses on payment protection insurance (PPI) claims, has moved from its 6,000 sq ft former premises at Cross Hills to Keighley, where its new site is more than double the size at 15,000 sq ft. The firm has invested £26,000 in refurbishing the property, which is rented, said Mr Goodfellow.

Darren Smith, managing director of Investor Compensation, said: “Due to rapid growth in the business we now need an additional site in Keighley to cope with rising demand for our services.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for local people as we are looking to expand our team and recruit customer services and admin staff from Keighley and the surrounding areas.”

Mr Goodfellow told the Yorkshire Post: “It’s a busy market and that’s partly the reason why we’ve moved. We’ve been flooded with more paper and that’s why we needed to move.”

He said the company was looking to recruit full and part-time staff into posts as claims handlers and in clerical work, adding: “The ethos of the company is to employ local people.”

The Mitchell Farrar Group, which employs nearly 500 staff across its five companies, recorded a turnover of around £30m in its last financial year, forecast to hit £70m this year, while Investor Compensation’s revenue was at around £10m last year, and looks set to reach £40m this year. Mr Goodfellow said he would be “disappointed” if this level of growth didn’t continue.

“If you think about what’s happened in the last 12 months, the banks have finally accepted the fact there’s been mis-selling of PPI and accepted that people were entitled to claim,” added Mr Goodfellow.

The Cross Hills-headquartered group, which specialises in providing financial services support to consumers, operates in areas including claims management, debt management, insolvency and payday lending. It includes Debt Advisory Line and Mitchell Farrar Insolvency Practitioners.

Mr Goodfellow said: “Some of these things are transient if you like, so Investor Compensation, which is mostly the sale of PPI, will probably last another two or three years. You’d expect it to not totally disappear but certainly 95 per cent of it will disappear because the market will be solved and resolved.” He said the business would look to expand into areas such as life insurance.

Mr Goodfellow and facilities manager, Carole Manning, cut a ribbon to celebrate the opening of Investor Compensation’s new site last week.

Mr Goodfellow, who ran Skipton Building Society for 17 years, handed the reins to David Cutter in January, 2009.