Lowell Group Scoops Third National Award In Six Months

Leeds-based Lowell Group, one of the fastest-growing companies in the UK, has just collected its third national award in the last six months.

The debt purchasing company completed its hat trick by winning an award for the effectiveness of its staff recruitment and training program at the 2008 Training Journal Awards for Learning and Development.

Lowell’s head of human resources Annette Martinelli and group team leader Michelle Dunn collected the award for ‘Best Commercial Training Initiative by a company under 1000 employees’, which was given for Lowell’s ‘Recruit for attitude, train for skill’ program.

The program was devised by Lowell’s human resources and training teams to solve recruitment problems caused by the company’s rapid growth and to ensure new employees were effectively skilled in their roles.

Annette explained; “Our growth means we are recruiting new staff every month so we can’t rely on finding people with relevant experience. By putting more emphasis on people’s personal attributes and then training them in the job skills they need, we have opened up a much wider and higher quality pool of candidates to recruit from. In turn this has led to improved staff performance levels. A lot of work has gone into the program so we are delighted to win this award.”

Lowell Group has already picked up two other awards this year. It was named ‘VC-backed business of the year’ in the Fast Growth Business Awards 2008 and chief operating officer Andrew Bartle collected the ‘Developing the team’ award at the Institute of Credit Management Awards 2008.

Formed in 2004 with backing from a private equity fund managed by Cabot Square Capital, Lowell Group is a specialist debt purchasing company. Lowell Group buys consumer debts from a range of blue-chip organizations and then manages the recovery of those debts, working closely with debtors to help them resolve their financial difficulties and pay off what they owe.

Lowell Group reported an annual turnover last year of £50m ($98 million) and is on target to achieve continued strong growth in 2008. The business employs more than 350 people at its state-of-the art HQ and customer contact center in Leeds.
 
Lowell Group’s performance has received industry-wide recognition. In November 2007 the company was named ‘Debt Purchaser of the Year’ at a national debt industry awards event and in March 2008 it was recognized as one of the UK’s fastest growing businesses after being named ‘VC-backed business of the year’ in the Fast Growth Business Awards 2008.

In April 2008 Lowell Group was acquired by Exponent Private Equity and existing management for an undisclosed value.

James Cornell is the Yorkshire Institute of Directors’ current ‘Young Director of the Year’ and earlier this year chief operating officer Andrew Bartle was awarded the ‘Developing the Team’ award at the 2008 Institute of Credit Management Awards.