Maxey: May hit revenue target early
The personal injury law firm aiming to become the largest in the country has had another year of major growth, despite the overall sluggishness of the market.
Manchester-based Express Solicitors has reported group turnover for the year to 31 August of just under £54m, up by 28% from £42m in 2022. It was £27m the year before that, itself a 21% increase.
This was made up of £40m in fee income and £5.9m of work in progress – Express has around 25,000 open cases – plus £7.6m of income from its medical reporting agency, Ontime.
The firm’s profit before tax was also up sharply, from £9.1m in 2021/22 to £13.7m.
Chief executive James Maxey said: “If we continue this way, we could be hitting our target £60m earlier than expected, which would be amazing.
“The acquisition of Michael W Halsall Solicitors [1] in October last year has been a big factor in our success and another big development is the purchase and refurbishment of premises in Sharston, South Manchester, which will allow us to keep expanding.”
Mr Maxey added that there was “more growth locked in” for the current year with the recent acquisitions of Amelans and Jefferies Solicitors [2]. “The opportunities before us are looking very good indeed.”
Express Solicitors now has around 620 employees.
Recent research [3] found that the PI market is showing “little signs of recovery”, with some – mainly larger – firms posting good results. But with ongoing reform and uncertainty “not helping to create any stability”, it predicted negligible market growth throughout this year and next.
The IRN report said: “Amongst this weak performance there are some providers that are posting good results and have expansion strategies for the next three to five years.
“These are mainly the larger firms and the result is likely to be further consolidation and an increasing market presence for some of the existing market leaders.”