Wealth management firm brings new links for local supply chain
Marc Hackney with Lorraine Prentice.
A WEALTH management specialist who has worked with some of the biggest names in sport and entertainment is sharing the success with his home town after opening a second office in Hull.
Marc Hackney has used the contacts developed from his own background in Hull and from The Deep Business Centre’s network to move Vobis Limited’s entire supply chain to East Yorkshire.
He said: “We use Office Angels in Hull for our recruitment, photocopiers from Spectrum, IT from The One Point, design from Umber Creative, print from Halographic. We use local businesses wherever we can.
“We also help our local suppliers get work elsewhere. People get better value and the quality is just as good. It’s about supporting the local economy.”
Vobis is also active in the community. Its new business Outbox has sponsored various sporting awards in the region and marketing executive Lorraine Prentice is a director of the Hull KR Community Trust. Now Vobis is in the process of launching the Kay Ibbetson Trust (KIT), named after the first female rugby league coach and dedicated to supporting sports clubs and individuals.
Marc said: “KIT will lean towards children and will promote the life lessons they can learn from sport – respect, taking instructions, responsibility of being part of a team.”
Marc went to Andrew Marvell School in Hull and learned his trade locally with Ernst and Young. When he headed to London to build an “A” list client base he vowed he would never return.
He started his own wealth management business in 2007 and two years later set up Vobis in partnership with Richard Stott, the company’s executive director and a key figure behind the launch in 2013 of the CLIC Sargent Wig Wednesday initiative.
The London client base includes big names in the media industry, celebrities and sports personalities. The company had office space with top accountancy practice Silver Levene and moved to its own premises in 2013
But while the London office is the client-facing side of Vobis Limited it will be overtaken this month in staffing terms by the Hull office, which opened just over a year ago at The Deep.
Marc said: “For about a year I was commuting and spending part of the week working from home. You only realise how much it has taken out of you when you stop. The office in London is expensive and I decided to take the back office functions to Hull.”
Vobis opened at The Deep in November 2014, doubled its space in April 2015 and will expand its workforce to seven this month with two new recruits, with five colleagues in London. The launch of Outbox to help employers deal with the requirements of auto enrolment is timely and underlines the commitment of the directors to develop the business.
Marc said: “We are completely family orientated and want to bring young people through to deal with the children of the entrepreneurs who are our clients, and while London is the main market for what we do it makes so much commercial sense for all of the back office work to be in Hull.
“When I left the city was so depressed but I came back to find it really vibrant. When I came back it was the best thing I ever did. I love the city and the people. It is true that northern people are more friendly and it is only when you move away and then come back that you see the difference.
“The Deep was perfect for us. We were able to move in quickly once we decided we wanted to be in Hull and they were also able to provide more space when we said we needed it. It’s a good working environment and when contacts and clients come here for meetings they are always impressed.”
Freya Cross, Business and Corporate Manager at The Deep, said: “Vobis is another great local success story. They were effectively a start-up in Hull when they opened here with only one employee but they have built an innovative and robust business from which so many other companies in the region have benefitted.”
