Debt advisers in Grantham hopes to recruit again this year

Grantham debt adviser Totemic says it hopes to recruit new staff this year - just five months after warning that it would have to axe up to 500 jobs.

Financial services provider Totemic (2014) Holdings, of Kempton House, in Dysart Road, made 211 redundancies last year as it struggled with a challenging market.

While the figure is still significant, it includes 80 voluntary redundancies and is short of the company’s feared worst case scenario of 500 job losses.

Director John Fairhurst said: “Across all our sites we now have 700 staff.

“We are positive about getting back into recruitment as we go through 2017 but it will be on a very cautious basis.

“Indeed one or two people who had left are already back with us.

“This is the result of an improvement in the volume of new business that we are able to attract.

“But the new recruitment will be at a slower pace than previously.”

Totemic, which has its head office in Grantham and is made up of a group of businesses, employed more than 800 staff at sites in Grantham, Long Bennington and Birmingham.

Its main activity is the provision of free to consumer debt advice and debt management.

Its difficulties began last year after it had taken on many new staff to cope with a growing workload as a number of fee-charging competitors ceased trading after a clampdown by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

Mr Fairhurst said: “We were run off our feet - it was an intense time for us.”

However, a successful legal challenge to the FSA’s decision meant that fee-charging debt advisers were able to continue their operations.

Mr Fairhurst said Totemic saw a big chunk of its workload disappear combined with a separate underlying weakness in its markets.

He said: “Suddenly, we were at a cliff edge.

“However, we are now in the situation where we expect to be recruiting again this year.

He said: “We are now attracting new business by building on existing relationship - growth is back but it will be at a much slower pace.”

Related:

Up to 500 jobs under threat at financial services giant in Grantham