This Is Guernsey

By Tom Edwards

Active Group founder Wayne Bulpitt. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 0532570)

PUTTING something back into the community was the motivation behind Wayne Bulpitt’s decision to start his own company.

The managing director of Active Group Ltd founded the business in 2001 to allow himself the flexibility to devote time to local charitable causes.

The group was joint runner-up for the BWCI-sponsored best medium business at the recent Awards for Achievement.

Mr Bulpitt and business partner Reuben Gaudion have bought a chapel at La Moye, redeveloped it and now lease it at a favourable rate as the North Youth Centre, providing much needed facilities to support youth work.

Active Group also contributes to the centre’s running costs by using it as a disaster recovery facility.

‘Being part of the community and contributing something to it has always been something I feel quite passionate about, as do the other directors,’ he said.

‘I’m heavily involved in the Scouts. Last year I was chairman of the national board of trustees, I was chairman of the finance committee for the previous five years and a volunteer on a management basis for the last seven.

‘Charitable work is very much a part of what we do at Active.

‘I had previously written to the Guernsey Press about the lack of community facilities and that’s how the chapel project came about. There are plans afoot for something similar in St Peter Port.’

Active Group was founded in 2001 and provides proactive and professional support to more than 100 companies, principally within the finance sector.

Its core services range from providing compliance and support services to providing executive and non-executive directors, identifying out-sourcing solutions and supporting and advising non-financial start-up businesses.

During the past 12 months the company has widened its outsourcing service to include company secretarial and accounting support.

Offices have been established in the Isle of Man and Jersey and other jurisdictions, such as Dubai, are to follow in the future.

‘Having established a core business in Guernsey, we realised there were similar opportunities in the other islands,’ said Mr Bulpitt.

‘Wherever there is a demand for financial services, there is clearly a demand for the kind of support services that we offer.

‘In Dubai they are struggling to find the right staff and judging by all the money that is being pumped into the place, there is an obvious long-term commitment and we believe it is the right market for us.’

Key to Active Group’s continued success has been the ability to recruit and retain exceptional staff. And it’s working - annual turnover has almost doubled in the last 12 months.

Much of its business comes via the recommendation of existing clients and the group has a reputation of being a problem solver with a ‘can do and will do’ attitude.

‘We expect turnover to double again this year and we are up to 40 staff now, most of whom are in Guernsey,’ said Mr Bulpitt.

‘One of the things that makes us different is that we have eight consultants in addition to a number of people who have recently retired, so we are willing to be flexible.

‘We are also trying to recruit people from outside the finance industry to ensure that we have a good mix of skills.

‘One is an ex-police officer and at the other end of the scale is a 19-year-old lad who, not having had any previous job experience, showed initiative and in a short time was promoted to the compliance support team.’