PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
The story of the Brightstar Group
Brightstar Financial began trading in January 2011 from offices based in Brentwood, Essex. Over a period of three years, the company continued to grow in ‘serviced office’ units before moving into its permanent head office in November 2013 in Billericay. In its first 10 years of trading, Brightstar has secured funding for nearly 30,000 customers on 18,000 completions worth more than £5bn.
Sirius, based in London, began trading in October 2016 as part of the Brightstar Financial Group. In February 2020 the company traded as a separate legal entity, still majority owned by Brightstar Financial.
Sirius gave the group a direct to consumer offering with a distinctive property debt advisory service for high-net-worth individuals and property investors. The company began trading as a separate legal entity in February 2020, but remained majority owned by Brightstar Financial.
Turnover
Once established, The Brightstar Group has consistently grown turnover across the group, including during periods of national lockdown, when the Covid pandemic forced the closure of many parts of the economy.
At the same time, The Brightstar Group has consistently invested in its brands, building new technology and developing its people to ensure that it continues to improve the overall service proposition it offers to all customers.
Awards
Aside from the growth of the business, The Brightstar Group has recorded a number of other significant achievements over the last decade, including winning more than 120 industry awards. The Group was notably named the number one Best Small Company to Work For in the UK by The Sunday Times for two consecutive years in 2019 and 2020, becoming the first company from any industry to top the list for two years in a row and securing the highest ever score in the history of the competition for people engagement.
As well as this, in 2016, The Brightstar Group achieved Investor in People Gold status and also became a signatory for the HM Treasury led Women in Finance Charter. In 2017, the Group won the title of Global Investors in People Gold Employer of the Year and in 2019 it reached 1,000 Trustpilot reviews. At the time of writing, The Brightstar Group has reached more than 2,000 reviews and holds a 4.9 ‘Excellent’ TrustScore.
Future opportunities
There is a clear trend in the mortgage market today that presents significant opportunity for The Brightstar Group in the future. People’s circumstances and finance requirements are becoming more diverse, the lending community has appetite to lend, but is becoming more complex, and sector specific expertise is crucial.
The Brightstar Group has seen growth across all divisions as a result of a combination of increased demand for specialist finance amongst customers and more brokers becoming alert to the opportunity to work with a specialist distributor.
Both Brightstar Financial and Sirius Property Finance have significant plans for the future. Sirius is going from strength to strength and, as we enter The Group’s second decade of trading, Brightstar Financial’s reach expands to 75% of the intermediary market.
The biggest opportunities lie in continuing to deliver a service that truly adds value to all parties in a transaction and results in good customer outcomes. It’s this honest approach to doing a good job that has stood The Brightstar Group in good stead over the last decade and it’s this approach that we will take into the next one.