Why collaborate? The thinking behind the Bristow & Sutor Group

Why collaborate? The thinking behind the Bristow & Sutor Group

In this week's Leading the Way blog, we reflect on the formation of the Bristow & Sutor Group and consider how a combined approach will continue to positively affect customers and partners of Credit Style, Debt Recovery Plus and Bristow & Sutor now and in future.  

The Bristow & Sutor Group combines the three leading debt recovery experts, Debt Recovery Plus (DRP), Credit Style, and Bristow & Sutor. All three businesses within the group have committed to working closely together, ensuring that the successes, achievements and insight gained by each unique team contribute to performance improvements and best practice strategies for all. 

Credit Style, based in Sheffield, is built on four main pillars of experience, white-label collections outsourcing, pre-legal collection services, field visit remediation solutions and in-house legal services as a fully licensed, SRA (Solicitors Regulation Authority) law firm. DRP, headquartered in Manchester, is the leading provider of debt recovery services for the private parking sector and offers the highest recovery rate in the industry. Bristow & Sutor, based in Redditch, has over 44 years of experience in the collection of local council tax, non-domestic rates and unpaid Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) and scored a flawless 100% in an independent audit of adherence to the CIVEA code of practice. Not only does the Group offer market leading collection rates, but it is able to offer a seamless and cohesive “one-stop shop” supporting clients from pre-debt through to litigation services.

Unique business, common goals

As much as all three businesses service different sectors, clients and customers, there are more similarities than differences. Each company has built a reputation for success built on innovative approaches, an understanding of the challenges around problem debt and a genuine desire to reach favourable outcomes that benefit both those who owe and those who are owed an outstanding debt. Collectively and individually, our culture is people centric and intrinsically focused towards high-performance. 

Working in partnership as one consolidated group means we can provide a full enforcement and litigation service under one roof, thanks to open communication and knowledge sharing across three successful and collaborative businesses. We believe this approach aids our success, both in demonstrating our differentiating range of capabilities and producing effective and efficient results that see many partnerships we embark on last for many years. As time has progressed, we have introduced more Group roles, often via internal promotion, allowing employees to focus their efforts on all three businesses as a connected entity.

Insight and impact

The Bristow & Sutor Group and companies  have won awards and accolades for commitment to transformation, remaining at the forefront of innovation and promotion of debt resolution best practices. This has included but is not limited to recognition at the IPC Parking Awards, IRRV Awards, Collections Technology Awards and the inaugural CIVEA Awards. Many of these achievements can be attributed to our open communications and willingness to share. We understand the successes of one team can influence and shape approaches for the benefit of others, as well as allow all three businesses to learn from any obstacles or challenges that peers may encounter.

There are many additional advantages to being part of a collective group of businesses too, including the combined efforts we can make towards charitable causes. For example, earlier this year we recorded over 3000 miles of steps during Debt Awareness Week 2022, the annual campaign organised by StepChange. Each location had its own team and simulated the 250-mile round trip it takes to visit all three main offices of Credit Style, DRP and Bristow & Sutor. Employees from across the Group have benefited from workshops delivered by the Money Charity and many more great initiatives are lined up for the rest of the year and beyond.

A word from the Bristow & Sutor Group Board…

“At Bristow & Sutor Group we are privileged to serve a wide range of clients and their customers across all sectors from local authorities to transport, private parking operators to commercial organisations such as utilities and banking.  We are delighted to have the opportunity to support their full range of needs in debt resolution and to deliver tailored solutions expertly and efficiently with sensitivity and professionalism. 

We appreciate that with the ever-changing socio-economic environment, we need to be adaptive to the heightened demands of our clients, anticipating tomorrow today, as well as the challenging context in which customers and members of the public find themselves managing their household income, requiring us to engage effectively and understand each situation.

Placing clients and customers at the heart of what we do is fundamentally important to us and we have a talented team of colleagues who are dedicated and committed to achieving the best outcome and doing this in the right way, upholding the high standards we take pride in.

We are excited about the future for our business and the opportunity to bring our three subsidiaries, Bristow & Sutor, Credit Style Limited and Debt Recovery Plus Ltd, even more closely together.  We firmly believe that we can harness the talents, capabilities and innovation in technology represented across the Group to an even wider audience and bring new solutions to build on the excellent relationships with our existing clients.”