- Sedulo chief Paul Cheetham-Karcz was told by advisors not to open another office in Merseyside, but he ignored them and embraced the city with tremendous success
The founder of a national financial advisory firm has told leading business owners to open new offices in Liverpool and embrace the city in order to emulate his own incredible success in the region.
Paul Cheetham-Karcz, who opened a stunning Sedulo office in Exchange Flags last summer to go alongside their premises in Manchester, London and Leeds, says he was warned by advisors not to work in Merseyside as it was such a “difficult market to crack”.
However, the Manchester businessman decided to ignore that and offer Sedulo’s world-class business advisory and investment services to the city.
And Sedulo Group’s first year in Liverpool has been a total triumph having overseen the success of fashion brands Montirex, Gypsabella and Luxe Collective while acquiring Wilson Henry, a staple among the city’s advisory community for more than 60 years, and running successful events with sports stars like Tony Bellew and Jamie Carragher.
The Sedulo team in Liverpool also now boasts more than 40 members and Mr Cheetham-Karcz said: “We’ve been in Liverpool for nearly 18 months and have seen our revenues increase by around 30% to 35% and with the likes of Montirex we’ve implemented a plan for them to enter into the national and European markets next.
“It’s amazing but what I’m most pleased about is that our strategy has paid off. We were never going to come here and set up a two-seater office and say we’re a Liverpool-based business. We’ve put our money where our mouth is, created arguably the best office in the city, put on some cracking events and are working with some of the best consumer brands in the region – helping them obtain some ridiculous growth.
“If I go back to the beginning, everyone at the start was saying ‘don’t do Liverpool’ and ‘you’re a Manc in the middle of Liverpool and they won’t take well to it’. I disagreed and felt like we had to embrace the city in order for the corporate world to embrace us – and it’s worked. It’s a lesson to others, I believe a lot of people try to take from Liverpool and not give back.”
Over the last 18 months, Sedulo have certainly given back to the region having run a Christmas toy appeal in 2021 whereby they delivered 2,000 presents to 200 children in Liverpool who were living in impoverished circumstances – a drive running again this year too. The company built a playground for a school in Warrington in January who’d had the area condemned and gave out more than 6,000 pieces of school equipment to children who didn’t have the means to afford it – allowing them to complete homework and access basic utilities.
Sedulo signed an initial 10-year lease to work from Exchange Flags and Mr Cheetham-Karcz says “the next few years are all about growth and deeper levels of community work”.
He added: “We now have 40 staff in Liverpool and we want to double in size to 80 in the next three years. We’d like to work with more fast growing clients in the city and execute their plans. It’s all about more people, more clients, more events and the same fun while going deeper with our community work.
“Now we’re embedded in we’ll be doing a period poverty campaign next year on top of the other campaigns mentioned. That’s an extra campaign aimed at teenage girls who can’t afford the products they need during the menstrual cycle.”
Sedulo Group is a world-class advisory firm and investment house which was established in 2009. The business specialises in accounting, corporate finances, tax, wealth management and funding.
