Tees Business | Page 17

3:02 Serving the Teesside Business Community | 17 Endeavour Partnership partner Lee Bramley (left), from the firm’s commercial disputes team, with Midas Cladding managing director Martin Gilbey. Building firm soars with help of legal experts T eesside’s leading team of lawyers is helping one of the region’s fastestgrowing building firms to achieve another record year. Stockton-based Endeavour Partnership has been advising Middlesbrough construction group Midas Cladding for the last three years during a period of extraordinary growth. Endeavour first enabled managing director Martin Gilbey to invest in the company, advising on a management buyout (MBO) more than two years ago, before helping the firm buy its own 2,000 sq ft premises, Midas House, at Brignell Road on Riverside Park Industrial Estate in Middlesbrough, opposite Bulkhaul’s head office. Endeavour’s team has since advised and acted on behalf of Midas in a number of commercial disputes, meaning it has tapped into Endeavour’s wide-ranging legal expertise. Gilbey first joined Midas in a business admin role when it turned over £200,000 and had four staff. His company is now on track to achieve a record £5m turnover this year – a 20% growth on 2015. And Gilbey says he can’t underestimate the important role Endeavour has played in the firm’s huge success story. “As you grow, you employ more people, but there are always certain things within your business which need to be handled by professionals,” says Gilbey. “We’re an SME, so we can’t employ a team of legal experts to cover the range of legal advice we require as a business. Endeavour’s range of expertise allows us to tap into the various different areas of expertise as and when we need it. “It was important to build good, longstanding relationships with our external advisors so that we can get on with running the business and have that peace of mind that when a problem arises, they’re on hand to deal with it from a phone call or an e-mail. “It’s just like dealing with an extension of the Midas team, they’re just based in a different building.” Midas has worked with three different departments from within Endeavour Partnership. Its corporate team dealt with Midas’ MBO, its property team dealt with the purchase of Midas House and its commercial disputes team has advised on a number of sensitive cases. Endeavour Partnership partner Lee Bramley, who heads up the firm’s commercial disputes team, said: “The philosophy Martin has had from the start, which I’d love all our clients to have, is whether you like it or not, you need legal advisors when you’re trying to run a successful business. “A business employing 100 people, compared to 10, is a completely different animal and as a business grows, the need for our input grows. “Legal work can also be very sensitive, especially when you’re dealing with clients whom you want repeat business from, so