Serving the Teesside Business Community | 35
Endeavour Partnership’s corporate and
commercial team (left to right): Paul Bury,
Charlene Watson, Nik Tunley, Sean Jackson,
Joanne Seaman, Nigel Williams, Mandy Bowes,
Martin McKinnell, Amy Reynolds, James Butler,
Jessica Lenham and Adeel Bashir.
Endeavour growth
By Martin Walker
T
eesside’s leading law firm is well on
track to achieving ambitious growth
plans it set over a year ago.
At the end of 2017, Endeavour Partnership
announced its most successful 12 months in
the firm’s 18-year history.
The Stockton-based company is a year
ahead of its anticipated growth plans and is
already handling twice as many corporate
transactions a year than it did three years
ago.
With its year-end not due until the end
July, the Teesdale firm’s corporate team has
already handled well over 60 transactions
with a cumulative value of about £245m, for
clients across the UK, but predominantly in
the North-East.
And Endeavour remains on track to deliver
its five-year business planning objective of
doubling its turnover during this period, with
overall turnover up to £3.5m.
The firm’s corporate team – headed up by
senior partner Nik Tunley – is the largest and
most experienced on Teesside, and has also
enjoyed 20% year-on-year growth for three
consecutive years.
“Three years ago the corporate team was
probably handling 35 transactions a year,
and we’re already up to nearly 70 with a few
months still to go,” says Tunley.
“So that shows the level of growth we’ve
experienced in recent years, which is down
to the team we have and the depth of
knowledge and experience we have within
the business.”
One of Endeavour’s many success stories
has been its work with Teesside-based
is on track
businessman Mike Racz, of Hartlepool-based
Racz Group.
Racz owns the franchises of several
Domino’s Pizza and Costa Coffee outlets as
well as restaurants, gyms and social media
companies.
“Mike is a fantastic Teesside success
story,” says Tunley. “We’ve worked very
closely with him as his business has grown
over the last 15 years and we’ve handled a
number of acquisitions for him.
“Mike, like us, is passionate about
Teesside, and it has been brilliant to help him
on his journey.”
Endeavour’s corporate team has also
recently successfully advised Darlington-
based the Feel Good Group, which is behind
the well-known Tanning Shop brand, in raising
growth capital from Perwyn and HSBC as
part of plans to continue its store roll-out
strategy.
“That represented a significant transaction
for the region and demonstrates the quality
of the businesses based here,” says Tunley.
“It’s one of the largest operators of its kind
in the UK with more than 80 stores located
across the country and this growth capital
will help the firm fund new stores across the
country.
“So the geographical reach of our work is
very much national, and although we work
principally with Teesside and North-East-
based SMEs and entrepreneurs, we also
work much wider afield.”
While Endeavour’s team continues to grow
– the firm now employs a team of 54, who all
live on Teesside – it hopes to create around
six new jobs in 2018.
One of its newest and more senior
recruits is well-known Middlesbrough-born
lawyer Nigel Williams, who over 25 years
has advised many locally-based, privately-
owned businesses, as well as national and
international clients such as Sembcorp
Utilities and PD Ports.
Williams has joined Endeavour as a
partner in the corporate department and
will be responsible for handling a variety of
transactional work, business development
and mentoring other members of the team.
Tunley adds: “Nigel’s appointment is
a big step forward for us due to his vast
experience.
“He will enable us to move to the next
level of growth and give us extra capacity to
continue to develop the extremely talented
younger members of our team, which will
mean the volume and quality of transactions
we’ll be able to handle will continue to
increase.”
Read more about Nigel Williams’
appointment at Endeavour on page 62.
Find out more about Endeavour and its
corporate services at endeavour.law