Core Chairman Shares Secrets of Success
This week Core’s founder and chairman Gareth Henderson was a panellist at the first HTEA breakfast networking event of the 2019-2020 Season, in association with Huddersfield Town and Kirklees College.
Themed ‘Powering Up’, the event was held at Landings 72 Restaurant at Kirklees College and explored how successfully local business have expanded to a national level.
Richard Blackburn of Wilby Insurance was on the panel alongside Gareth and both shared their personal experience of successful business growth, including top tips and pitfalls to avoid.
Gareth founded his first company in Yorkshire in 2004, specialising in energy purchasing, efficiency and compliance. He successfully grew this into a multi-million pound organisation with offices throughout the UK, before selling it in 2015. He has also established businesses focusing on waste management, IT managed services and estates management. Core Facility Services brings all this expertise under one roof to offer a complete facilities management service including full energy management and sustainability consultancy.
Richard is Managing Director of Wilby Insurance Brokers, one of Town’s longest standing partners. Having joined in 2006 Richard led the development of Wilby from a small regional insurance broker to one of the most recognisable brokers in the region. This was achieved through several acquisitions across the North and the development of key niches across the UK which has seen Wilby successfully grow year on year and profitability increase significantly. In 2018 Wilby became part of the PIB Group, one of the top 20 Brokers in the UK, and in addition to his continued role at Wilby Richard is also a key part of the leadership team within PIB Group.
HTAFC’s commercial director Sean Jarvis posed some interesting questions to the two entrepreneurs and invited them to share their advice to other businesses in the region with ambitions for growth.
Gareth’s takeaway piece of advice was that business owners should focus on building a team and empowering their people.