Nicholson Group completes restructure

Jul 26 2010 by John Hill, The Journal

A TRANSPORT and distribution company has shrugged off its bank's advice and just completed a restructure which includes branching out into the launch of a pheasant cookery business.

David Nicholson, chairman of Billingham-based Nicholson Group, hopes to launch the Pheasant Cookery School this autumn after securing planning permission for the first school at Close Farm, Wynyard.

The venture has been supplied with start-up investment from the Nicholson Group, the parent company which was formed as part of a two-year restructuring of the existing businesses that started in 2008.

He said: “It was an opportunity we came up with a year ago to do something with basic cooking and fine dining for individuals and corporate bookings.

“We’ve just got planning permission for the first one in Wynyard. I can’t really cook, although it is an interest. I just thought it was a good business opportunity.”

Nicholson founded Nicholson Transport Teesside over 20 years ago, and it now offers transport, warehousing and distribution from its base in Billingham.

He initially discussed a restructuring of the business with the company’s bank three years ago, but the downturn meant banks were reluctant to lend against property.

He said: “They suggested we didn’t put our heads above the parapet and stay as we were as a transport company, but that wasn’t what I wanted to do.

“I wanted to have several individual companies running profitably rather than one business. I’d been in the transport company as a lone operator for over 20 years and I wanted to give individual managing directors autonomy as we had a lot of talent in individual departments.”