Holland’s Country Clothing was founded by Malcolm Holland in 1978. Malcolm, a fourth-generation farmer at Disley Hall Farm, started the business by selling just a few pairs of wellingtons. The business went from strength to strength in its early years – country shows, markets, and wax coats marked Holland’s brand identity.
Holland’s has been rooted to the farming community for many years and will always be committed to providing high quality rural clothing. After Malcolm’s death in 1989, Mark Holland continued to nurture and develop the brand, as a sole trader. This saw the eventual launch of Holland’s online website in 2008 – the beginning of a new chapter for the company.
Matt Holland, grandson of Malcolm, joined the company in June 2014, after completing his graduate scheme at McDonald’s. Matt picked up lots of valuable management skills from his time there, but, as a risk-taker, he was always destined to have a hands-on role.
A few years later, in 2017, Holland’s partnered with Shopify – a move which induced a lot of positive change within the company and led to even higher levels of growth. His sister, Sarah, and later his brother, Rob, both eventually joined Holland’s a couple of years later, making it a true family business.
Today, Holland’s continues to provide high quality clothing and exceptional customer service to the country and farming community.
Holland’s recent sales and revenue growth has been phenomenal – in just four years, the company’s annual turnover figure increased four-fold. Despite this, the company still needed some friendly guidance on how to best manage the financial side of the business.
Specifically, Holland’s were interested to know how to successfully control cashflow within the business to ensure that they did not hit an ‘impassable brick wall’ later down the line.
There was also uncertainty surrounding key business decisions – Holland’s were keen to understand and develop the expertise and experience needed to foresee the many complexities that come with business growth.
We were first referred to IN Accountancy by Duncan Harrop, one of their clients, in 2018. We wanted to become a Limited company as we were paying too much tax as a sole trader, however, our old accountants advised against it and failed to provide any real business advice.
Funnily enough, we went limited after a couple of months with IN Accountancy and business took off! IN Accountancy helped us to better manage our finances and cash flow during a vital phase of growth.
Before we worked with IN Accountancy, we were unaware of the direct correlation between our levels of stock inventory and profitability. It was only after a few eye-opening conversations with Sarah and Andy that we realised how damaging it would be if we continued to operate like this.
As Sarah and Andy are, first and foremost, business people, as opposed to accountants, they have the freedom to give you invaluable business advice. This is what has been most useful to us – they helped us to make the right decisions and avoid the wrong ones.
Without their continued support (some might say constant nagging) I’m not sure we would have survived.
Since working with IN Accountancy, and in the space of just two years, we enjoyed a £1.7 million increase in annual turnover. The team has now grown from 4 to 18 employees, and we managed to achieve an annual turnover of £3.8 million plus VAT in the last financial year (2020/21).
Now that we’ve got a tight grip on our finances, we’re very optimistic about the future and look forward to more sustainable growth. We have recently moved into our new warehouse and embarked on an exciting new chapter for the business.
“I highly recommend IN-Accountancy, the team they have built are fantastic. They assisted us during our transition from a sole trader to being a limited company. We simply couldn’t have done this without them due to the complexities involved. They have given us key strategic guidance and advice on managing our business while we have gone through significant growth. Their business experience and knowledge enabled us to maintain excellent cashflow, and avoid mistakes which growing companies often run into. The whole team often wow us with their tip top professionalism, accuracy, and communication. Irrespective of your size or needs IN-Accountancy will be able to assist you, we could not recommend them more.” – Matt Holland, MD
Would we be in the same place without IN accountancy? Definitely not.
You can find Holland’s Country Clothing’s website below:
Holland’s Country Clothing – Home of Great British Country Clothing– Hollands Country Clothing
