Redington

Year founded 2006
HQ Location London
Sector Financial Services
Staff count 143
Turnover (2017/18) £18.0m (est.)
Redington’s co-founders, Robert Gardner and Dawid Konotey-Ahulu have been deploying a fine blend of social, intellectual and financial capital to drive the consultant’s goal to help make 100m people financially secure.
www.redington.co.uk
Freely sharing our IP helps us to market our business and in turn helps us to drive our network.

Robert Gardner

Co-founder

Long-term financial security for 100m pension savers

“Dawid and I founded Redington in 2006 with the mission to do to pensions what Jamie Oliver did to school food,” says co-founder Robert Gardner.

“We left our jobs at Merrill Lynch to set up Redington in Dawid’s attic. Our idea was simple. Large pension fund deficits did not need to exist. There was a better way,” he explains.

Redington focuses on helping individual members with its innovative approach. The company does this by advising pension funds how to better manage risk and help them improve their ability to pay their members.

“If we do a good job, we know we are improving financial futures of members,” Gardner says.

An example of this was when Redington helped the UK’s Philips Pension Fund completely buy out its liabilities by an insurance company. In 2015, when the final deal completed, 30,000 members had a safe and secure pension fund for their retirement.

 

A purpose beyond money

Gardner says that creating quality professional networks that “feed into social connectedness is crucial” in achieving a meaningful purpose. “That’s why social capital is something that must be understood, grown and nurtured,” he believes.

Many institutional pension consultants have tended to take a guarded approach to sharing ideas. Redington broke from the pack with its open approach, sharing their thinking to help improve the industry.

 

Sharing ideas for the greater good

Intellectual capital is Redington’s second element in its capital mix. “Intellectual property or IP will constitute the balance sheet assets of the future rather than fixed assets and commercial buildings,” says Gardner.

Gardner sees great potential from monetising data behind an idea or physical activity, which is precisely why Redington spearheaded IP development. Creating IP is not just about patents or frameworks, but it’s more about brand and the brand experience, he says.

“Being reciprocal in business is vital,” Gardner explains. “Freely sharing our IP helps us to market our business and in turn helps us to drive our network.”

Revenue and profit provide a much-needed sanity check for a growing business, but cash is king when it comes to being able to invest for growth

Robert Gardner, Redington

 

Cash is king when investing

“Revenue and profit provide a much-needed sanity check for a growing business,” says Gardner, “but cash is king when it comes to being able to invest for growth.”

Part of the company’s financial capital focus is employee ownership. Using Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) schemes to align the staff with the firms growth plans.

Just five years ago, Redington put in place an annual fixed-fee retainer model. It provided predictable revenue streams and cashflow certainty. “Between 80-85% of our revenue is now recurring, and inflation-linked,” says Gardner.

Cashflow certainty allows Redington to invest over longer horizons. “This financial stability has allowed us to invest in our future,” he says.

Redington has now grown from its first client, Royal Mail, to over 80 clients. From the two co-founders to a team of over 140 employees, all committed to helping 100 million people become financially secure.


Key Metrics

20%+

Turnover growth

£1.13m

Grants received

(R&D tax claim benefit since 2010)

3 million

Pension savers helped

Related Stories

Creative Nature
Using all her savings Julianne Ponan set up vegan-friendly superfoods company Creative Nature, and despite being rejected by dozens of investors early on the company’s sales of allergen-free products have soared. Read more...
PHMG
Founder and managing director Grant Reed says PHMG’s journey has been about slow, steady initial growth before “pushing the button to go big”, securing the company’s position as a world leader in audio branding. Read more...
Virtual1
After taking the “emotional step” to sell a minority stake in his business, founder Tom O’Hagan is confident he’s found the right type of patient capital plus associated support to realise his goal to become the top UK company to work for. Read more...
Rosebourne
A group of successful serial entrepreneurs had the well-earned credibility to attract maximum EIS investment for their garden centre business, but raising funds outside the EIS market can be challenging for some growth companies. Read more...
Uniplaces
Ben Grech and his two co-founders Miguel Amaro and Mariano Kostelec met at university and were inspired to emulate the successes of marketplace champions Airbnb and Homeaway. Focused on offering choice, trusted service and convenience, they set up Uniplaces to make international student rentals much easier and more secure to access. Read more...
Longitude
An impressive 55.9% annual average revenue growth rate between 2012 and 2015 helped confirm Longitude’s place on the FT1000 fastest-growing businesses in Europe list. But it has done so entirely from cashflow, rather than relying on external financial support. Read more...