Meet Dan Franklin – handl Group’s Chief Strategy Officer

If you’ve spoken to handl Group about a potential acquisition in recent years, the chances are good that you’ll have spoken to Dan Franklin. Part of our senior team since 2019, Dan’s focus is the big picture for the group. Setting the right strategy, supporting management teams, and focusing on making the right deals to help our group – and our businesses – grow.

In fact, it’s safe to say that growth is Dan’s passion. He might not have taken the traditional route to a senior role at a company like handl Group, but Dan’s story – much like ours – is about perpetual growth.

Who is Dan Franklin?

When you hear that Dan’s path to the board involves strategy, leadership, mergers and acquisitions is one of those roles you’d be forgiven for thinking you know the story already.

The right university, the right contacts, some time spent with a big 4 audit practice before stepping into transaction services or corporate finance to help get deals over the line, before gradually moving up the food chain.

Dan’s story isn’t that. It doesn’t start that way, and very few of the steps he took along the way are what you’d expect.

“For starters, I didn’t go to University. I went to a sixth form college in Salford, learnt the fundamentals of accountancy at a northwest practice and decided I just wanted to get out into the real world (industry), which saw me join Hyde Group, and while this was as a management accountant it was a step in the right direction.”

Fortunately for an accountant who didn’t much like doing accounts, Dan’s next few career moves saw him move away from the books and towards customers.

“By the time I was 20, I had stopped preparing accounts and taken up an opportunity as a commercial manager for Hyde Group’s engineering division, learning from experienced operators how to get out in front of the right people (decision makers), do deals, and create long-lasting relationships (some of which I still hold to this day).”

Success at Hyde Group positioned Dan with the right skillset and experience to explore new markets – “I joined marketing agency Momentum Worldwide – part of NYSE:IPG, and I’d be client facing. Supporting creative and operations teams and their clients, such as Nestle and Proctor & Gamble by providing the right commercial and financial expertise to maximise returns from their marketing budgets. It all came down to learning about people and businesses.”

Dan’s next ten years of career history reads like a checklist of everything you’d want from someone who’d be able to advise on your business’ future. FD/CFO roles, MD, lead advisor on M&A transactions, portfolio management, Investor representative positions and turnaround projects roles.

“My various roles taught me a lot of what works and what doesn’t when you’re turning round a business that you’re about to acquire, but it also helped me build the most important skill anyone in this industry can have.

How to quickly and accurately appraise a business, judge its potential, develop a plan to fix any immediate challenges before setting the business off on a growth journey, and finance a deal.”

After leaving a role as a Chief Financial Executive, Dan took up an interim MD position to give himself the time to find the right fit at the right company. He needed somewhere that matched his career aspirations…

He found it at handl Group.

How did Dan join handl Group?

“In one of my previous roles, I’d learned that as well as being a good communicator, I was a strong problem solver. I enjoyed having a challenge to work towards, whether that was turning around a company, or focusing on executing a growth plan.”

Dan’s next challenge would be taking the foundations of a five-business group with all of the potential needed to become a successful investment company, and helping build it into one of the northwest’s fastest growing businesses.

“Six years ago, I met Graham and Ian to talk to them about working on a few acquisitions on a contract basis. I wasn’t expecting to walk out of that meeting with a permanent role, but I was delighted with that outcome.”

“We hadn’t yet made the decision to become a buy and hold investor – that came later – but from the start there was an ambition to create an investment portfolio of complementary businesses that focused on sustainable growth. It was an ambition that completely aligned with the group’s supportive shareholders, and that I knew we could deliver through corporate development, not just through a buy and build approach.”

That ambition would, in 2019, be introduced to the world as handl Group.

With a mindset that matched Graham’s values and ways of doing business, Dan knew this was somewhere he’d be able to build a long term future. Not just for the companies he knew were ready to be acquired, but for himself. And his colleagues.

“It’s not been a one-man crusade. We’re a mutually-supportive team here, and I’ve been given the time and space to really understand the businesses we had and how to expand our portfolio. Yes, I’ve originated and completed acquisitions, helped launch start-ups, but together we’ve all focused on exploring new value creation opportunities. That freedom to try new things hasn’t changed.”

Within two months, Dan completed the acquisition of Harrisons Associates. He’s never looked back.

What would Dan say he’s most proud of at handl Group?

Harrisons Associates was the first of many acquisitions for Dan. He played a key role in helping handl branch out into new areas – working to make Advanced CCA and Tessa Gough & Associates part of the group. But while he also helped us make our biggest acquisition – IPRS – and our most recent – WillisPalmer – he’s got an eye firmly on the future.

“I’ve taken that freedom to explore opportunities and run with it. We’ve built something great at handl Group, and it’d be easy to say we’ve done this and this, and I’m proud of that. But honestly, the thing I’m most proud of is that even after six years, it feels like we’re just getting started.”

So what do the next few years have in store?

“More of the same. We’re in a good place, and we need to keep doing what we’re doing. Building real partnerships, focusing on long term success, looking out for synergistic and transformational acquisitions. There’s lots more to come.”