We banked Cuff Roberts and most of the partners were my clients. When the Halliwells merger happened it turned out to be much more of an acquisition with alot of the functions moving to Manchester. Many of the Liverpool staff, including some of the solicitors, moved to Hill Dicks taking clients with them. Two of my clients, who retained partnership status at Halliwells, subsequently followed them. Many Liverpool based commercial clients didnt like being serviced out of Manchester and transferred their business too. I know HD worked very hard on this happening.
The acquisition turned into a financial nightmare for Halliwells having lost a lot of the income that made the business model work. So I thought it was karma when HD onboarded Halliwells. Everybody raised a few eyebrows when they took the whole of that new office on Old Hall Street but they pretty much tripled their business in just a few years.
I must admit I was gobsmacked when I saw they were sponsoring BMD so I googled them and couldn't believe how much they had grown since I retired. They are a real success story for the city of Liverpool completely bucking the trend of other prominent local businesses over the last 100 years. I can't think of anyone better to be the first sponsor of our new ground. I think it's an absolutely inspired move by our new owners and totally in line with our ethos of being a local club. I think it's brilliant.