Expansion, partnerships and awards – Northamptonshire firm reflects on 2023 successes

Award winners

We were thrilled to win Employer of the Year at the SME Awards 2023 – and the awards didn’t stop there. We then went on to win not one but two awards at the Northamptonshire Chamber of Commerce Business Awards – taking home both the Customer Commitment Award and Employer of the Year 2023 Award. We then topped it off in splendid style, being crowned UK Employer of the Year at the UK SME Business Awards in December. The perfect Christmas present after a year of impressive award wins.

Expanding our team

In the summer we welcomed Dominic Masterson on board as our new Chief Executive. Dominic brought with him over 35 years’ experience in the financial services sector, and immediately set about implementing plans to drive the business forward. We also welcomed Trudi Brown to our team as our new Business Development Officer. Trudi is responsible for bringing on new payroll partners, and has certainly started as she means to go on with several new client wins this year.

Exciting partnerships

Building on the relationship founded in 2022, we have been delighted to ramp up our offering to the UK Fishing industry this year. This revolutionary new partnership and initiative from the Seafarers’ Charity and Commsave Credit Union has delivered affordable financial services to more than 60 fishing families over the last two years.

This partnership follows Fishing Without a Safety Net which shed a light on the challenges of living on a fishing income and concluded that it was essential steps were taken to create a ‘safety net’ to support the personal finance and financial resilience needs of fishing families.

Following this research, Commsave has loaned nearly £854,000 – helping 64 fishing families access financial support, including match funded loans and home loans.

In the words of our CEO Dominic: “Not only are we providing loans, we are also supporting fishing families with regular saving accounts, helping them save for the future and for as yet unforeseen challenges.”

We are also delighted to announce that Vigilant Security, NTFC Community Trust and Goodwill Solutions also joined Commsave as new payroll partner members - all of whom can now offer their employees the benefit of saving with us directly from their salary at source.

Supporting local – Commsave in the Community

Building on the success of the launch of our Community Fund in 2022, we have donated more than £35,000 to a range of charities and causes this year.

In April we made donations to a Northamptonshire disability charity Teamwork Trust and to Northamptonshire’s Duston Primary School, who used our award to purchase new library books. We followed these with a further award to the Northamptonshire’s Children's Trust – a not-for-profit organisation that delivers children’s social care – who used the funding to recognise and reward children at the Children in Care Awards. As ever, we are passionate about working with and supporting our local community, so it was fantastic to become the new official club partner of Northamptonshire County Cricket in May. And our partnership with our local football league team Northampton Town, aka the Cobblers, went from strength to strength, as we became the first team training kit sponsors for both the men and women. We also launched our grants scheme for Cobblers fans – where we invite supporters to nominate a cause close to their heart for a chance to receive one of three £500 grants from us throughout the football season.

We are also a proud Business Partner of the Northamptonshire Chamber of Commerce – our way of giving back to the business community in which our headquarters are based.

Expanding into new offices

The opening of our new office in November really consolidated what has been a fantastic year for Commsave. With the success and growth, we have seen in the last 12 months, it felt the perfect time to expand into a larger HQ – we are delighted with our new home in Moulton Park, Northampton. Watch out for details of the office launch party in 2024! We are so proud of our achievements, our awards and our people. We head into 2024 with great optimism and excitement for the year ahead.

Find out more and become Commsave member – visit https://www.commsave.co.uk.