COMPANY REGISTRATIONS ONLINE LIMITED – A BRIEF HISTORY
Early History
In 1993, the company’s founder and current owner, Phil Vibrans, established a company formation business as a sole trader under the name of Davenport Company Services based in Stockport, Cheshire becoming one of only a small number of such organisations outside the City of London at that time. The next few years saw a slow but steady and strong period of organic growth.
In 1998, the Internet as a business tool was still in its infancy, but identification of this new market opportunity led to the development of the world’s first comprehensive online company formation service which we launched in that year. The following year the business was incorporated under the name of Company Registrations Online Limited and the subsequent growth this new market created led to relocation into larger premises within three months.
Buoyant trading conditions, a positive and carefully controlled marketing campaign led to rapid expansion over the next three years seeing turnover rise by nearly 800% during that period.
As the company formation business expanded, we developed the groundbreaking “CompanyView” web site, which was to become the primary customer interface for the provision of corporate statutory compliance services, an area in which the business had always excelled.
The development of internal operating systems and improvements to electronic communications with Companies House during this time created a state of the art system that enabled us to incorporate companies with remarkable efficiency. We were chosen by Companies House to help test the newly established electronic incorporation service and we were one of the first agents in the country to use this system extensively.
2003 – 2008
In October 2003 having once again outgrown existing premises, the company relocated into our present premises in Carpenter Court, Bramhall, Cheshire and embarked on an ambitious plan to develop an in-house software package designed to take full advantage of web site integration and electronic filing features recently introduced by Companies House.
Throughout this period the company became registered under the ISO9001 quality standard and concentrated heavily on staff development and training, creating an experienced and knowledgeable workforce, and building an unrivalled reputation for quality, service and friendly professionalism.
2009 – present
Despite difficult trading conditions in the UK economy, the company formation business remained particularly buoyant, and careful control of the business ensured continued growth in our market share. We have continued to increase our turnover achieving our record year to date during 2009/2010.
The CompanyView web site was enhanced by the addition of electronic filing facilities for abbreviated accounts for limited companies, and the company successfully re-developed all its internal processes and software systems in order to accommodate the new Companies Act, which became fully implemented on 1 October 2009.
The introduction of the new Companies Act and in particular major changes to the processes and documentation for incorporations, which became effective on 1 October 2009 were by far the most significant events to affect the company formation industry in over 25 years.
Further enhancements to the company’s service offerings were made by the improvement to our standard company search services, the introduction a dedicated trademark registration web site, and the launch of a brand new principal web site in April 2011.
Critical in the development of the business throughout its history has been the acquisition of market share achieved. As the company registration business is limited by market trends and the finite number of companies registered, businesses within the sector depend upon quality of service and reputation to improve their standing amongst regular customers and the market in general. Our quality of service and the reputation that follows is further reflected in the fact that over half of our regular clients have dealt with us for over five years.
Staff experience, loyalty and professionalism is critical to any business and we are proud to note over half of our workforce have been with the company over six years. Key to the achievements of the company are the dedication of the staff at all levels together with continued emphasis on technological development and the forward thinking approach of the management team.