This vision is at the forefront of all that we do as we seek to achieve significant growth for the company and consequent returns for shareholders.
The current emphasis on a marketing driven growth strategy is designed to appeal to a wide audience and in particular to relatively early stage investors who want to access the stockmarket but are unsure of the way forward. This growth strategy should deliver new customers and investor activity to our business. This should increase revenues and generate a relatively high proportion of recurring income which makes us less susceptible to specific market factors than some of our competitors.
Customer introduction is not only encouraged by retail promotion but also through a range of corporate and affinity channels. Depending on their character, customers using us through these routes have varying levels of experience, investment amounts and involvement, but our wide range of portfolio services looks after most needs. In many cases early-stage investors also use their experience with The Share Centre to increase activity levels. There are therefore a number of routes for future growth which we seek to encourage by marketing and sales activity, investment awareness and advice.
This strategy is underpinned by a strong commitment to the highest quality customer service. The success of that service is evidenced by The Share Centre's top placing by readers of “Which?” magazine (Which? magazine 2007, top rated execution only broker for customer satisfaction). We also seek to recruit, train and retain a high quality and motivated staff, and we invest significantly in training and development.
The Share Centre has also won Best Execution-only Broker 2008, voted for by Shares magazine and Best Online Sharedealing Provider 2008, Online Finance Awards.
The business model of the Group, along with one-off benefits from factors such as the sale of London Stock Exchange (LSE) shares granted to the Group when the LSE demutualised, has resulted in strong cash generation over recent years. This financial strength has now enabled the company to make the investments in marketing and means the Group is well positioned to also explore acquisition opportunities alongside the organic growth strategy.
