Major mortgage and wealth group Yellow Brick Road (YBR) has ended its aggressive growth phase and announced it will now consolidate to become a franchise wealth management business with branded franchises only.
The plan includes a consolidation in staff numbers and a focus on increased network productivity and adviser recruitment.
The changes follow the acquisition of four businesses: Resi Mortgage Corporation, Vow Financial, Brightday and Loan Avenue; as well as a three-year, $20 million brand investment in YBR to position itself for growth.
Executive chairman
Mark Bouris said the company, as a part of the franchise transition, will release three proprietary technologies to the network which will ramp up local customer acquisition capabilities to improve productivity.
“Moving to a franchise model is an important progression in our operations. The old licence structure served us well but is not adequately responsive or commercial to meet the future challenges and opportunities for a retail oriented businesses like ours,” Bouris said.
“We’ve had a period of phenomenal growth with multiple acquisitions and the development of new proprietary technologies. It is prudent we bed down this activity and successfully consolidate the acquisitions.”
Bouris said the acquisitions were made to increase scale, market share and distribution to the existing business.
“We’ve also developed a great brand and can now move to lower levels of advertising spend. Meanwhile, our new branch customer acquisition technology will allow us to fully leverage the brand at a local level.”
In addition, following the recent resignation of Matt Lawler, the CEO – Wealth Management, Bouris has announced the wealth division will be restructured and in future will be led by the newly created role of general manager, reporting directly to the executive chairman.
The appointment will be announced in due course.
