“You don’t need to walk into a branch and move your money through queuing up to a teller and doing it that way,’’ Helm says. “Secondly, it’s relatively easy to use so once you’re registered to use the service, then you can execute and transact online.”
Gilmour’s company has grown rapidly. It set up a New Zealand office in 2001, London in 2005, Toronto in 2007, Hong Kong in 2011 and it entered the US this year. Its spectacular growth has been recognised in BRW’s Fast 100 and Deloitte Technology’s Fast 50 Awards.
The big change came in 2007 when Gilmour and Helm, who at that time was working at Macquarie, got talking about the business. The two knew each other well – they had worked together at BT – and were on a surfing trip. At the time, Helm was working for Macquarie. They started talking about the business and Macquarie’s need to provide better foreign exchange service for its retail clients.
The result: Macquarie ended up buying 51 per cent of the business and Helm came across as the CEO, while staying on the Macquarie payroll. In November 2010, global venture capital firm Accel Partners and US-based private equity company Carlyle Group bought minority stakes. Macquarie reduced its stake. Macquarie, Carlyle, Accel and two other investors, including Gilmour, now have roughly equal stakes in the company. As part of the deal, Helm left Macquarie and went onto the OzForex books.
Helm says the high-tech, high-touch model is critical. “Historically, a lot of companies have either been great at technology and rubbish at customer service or great at customer service but have no platform behind them. We believe we have a really good mix of those things,’’ he says.
“We’re using technology to facilitate transactions to make it simpler for clients but we’re high-touch in the sense that we provide a personalised service for even the smallest clients because small clients turn into big clients over time.”
The company’s model is reflected in its recruitment strategy, he says.
“We recruit university graduates and we have intensive hands-on training so they progressively over a period of three to six months work their way through the system.
“After about two years, those staff then move on hopefully to other roles within the business, whether it’s the corporate desk dealing with corporate clients, or going into leadership roles or going overseas to work in other offices.”
As a result, the company has a retention rate of 95 per cent.
