The challenge
Define Gone West: A term used in certain areas of Liverpool meaning for something to go wrong, mess something up or to fall over. Climate change has ‘Gone West’.
Gone West is a Liverpool based tree planting company. They have planted over four million trees since they started in 2013, but that’s just the beginning. Their goal is to create environmental and social benefits around the world by generating ethical jobs and establishing, or restoring, natural habitats.
Gone West generates revenue by planting and protecting trees on behalf of businesses and individuals to help balance their environmental footprint, supporting organisation’s corporate social responsibility position and contributing towards a more sustainable future for everybody.
Started in 2013 by Managing Director James Hughes, the original ‘tree planter’, Gone West has gained momentum over the last few years, with more and more businesses and investors flocking to see how they can get involved.
James’ background was primarily forestry, so as the business grew he realised Gone West needed structured support services to help them reach their financial and social goals. Their internal finance lead is fantastic, but they needed to free up time by bolstering the finance team with part time tactical and strategic finance support.
The Fact3 solution
Gone West were introduced to Fact3 by a mutual contact who met James whilst he was pitching at an investment event in Edinburgh.
After initial due diligence where Fact3 challenged James on every aspect of the business to ensure Gone West and Fact3 would be a good fit, Fact3 advised that in order to meet their short and long term growth goals, they needed to streamline their finance processes and further develop and refine their vision as a business to encourage the right type of ongoing investment.
Laura Brogden, Fact3 Partner took a part time strategic FD role and Chris Atkinson, Fact3 Numbers Co-Sourcer set about supporting Gone West’s internal finance team, taking ownership of the financial systems and management accounts; taking on tasks that are outside of the internal team’s current skill set, streamlining processes and giving time back to the business to focus on new projects.
Co-sourced finance department
The co-sourcing approach allowed Fact3 to inject a breadth of experience into the business. They needed a combination of strategic and tactical input to help streamline the finance department, freeing up time for new projects and bring extensive strategic finance experience to board level conversations.
Attendance at all investor meetings
As well as preparation of all financial modelling and business planning to support ongoing investment, Laura Brogden has been by James’ side at all investor meetings and provides timely, strategic advice which has helped Gone West secure significant crowdfunding since we started working together.
Strategic advice
We offer honest and straightforward advice. This means we don’t shy away from difficult conversations to arrive at the best solution which has absolutely been the case with Gone West. We helped navigate the business direction, in particular around Gone West’s Corporate Social Responsibility offering by refining and and clarifying the business goals, helping grow that revenue stream exponentially.
The #FACTS
James Hughes, Gone West Managing Director:
On board level Finance Director support:
“OMG. OMG! Laura Brogden is some sort of wonder woman. What Laura has done is something that no other accountant has ever come close to doing for me or this business.”
On the biggest single sale to one company:
“We had an opportunity to sell 10,000 trees to one business, the biggest transaction in our history. Laura Brogden was on all of the calls, bringing a level of professionalism and expertise which strengthened Gone West’s validity and reputation, helping to close the deal.”
On reshaping the Gone West vision for future investors:
“Stephen [Partner, Fact3] is a crazy amazing guy. He helped us a lot with our vision and challenged me with questions nobody else has ever asked.”
On working with Fact3:
“The key thing is we work side by side. The co-sourcing approach works really well for our business. The Fact3 team are by our side, or just a WhatsApp away at all times. We primarily work with Fact3 virtually and it’s a really smooth process.”
On fitting in with the Gone West team:
“Part of Gone West’s vision is community ownership and inclusivity, so our people are of paramount importance to us. Fact3 work really well with our internal team, they have a lot of respect for everyone and really listen to what we have to say”
Gone West truly values every one of their partners.
They’ve requested we mention two fantastic projects they’re collaborating on:
Hammer Brewery, Italy
Hammer Brewery have embraced Gone West’s ‘For the Planet’ initiative, naming one of their craft beers ‘For the Planet’. For every 10 litres of beer sold Gone West plants a tree. For the Planet is cleaning the carbon footprint of Italy's award-winning Hammer Brewery. Every bottle and every draft enjoyed supports our reforestation efforts - creating jobs, opportunity and healthy soil. Learn more.
LOFT Furnishing, Manchester
Benjamin Hall, Managing Director at LOFT explained “We understand the carbon footprint created by construction is far from perfect, so we have decided to take action to try and make it better. We’ve officially partnered with GoneWest.com committing to plant a tree for every apartment we designed and furnished during 2020 – over 4000 trees!” Learn more.