Strontium in the News

Spartacus Fan's Toyota Deal

Mountain climbing fitness fanatic David Barker, who has scaled both Snowdon and Kilimanjaro and cites Spartacus, the Thracian gladiator-slave who led an unsuccessful uprising against the Romans, as an inspiration, is tangling amicably with Japanese car giant Toyota.

Strontium, the professional services group Barker floated on AIM in 2006, has inked a three-year contract with Toyota Financial Services worth €750,000 (£500,000) to supply business research for Toyota across 15 European countries.

Barker has deliberately kept Strontium low profile so far, preferring to under-promise and over-deliver. Its activities range from personal coaching for executives, specialist research and multilingual recruitment services to management training for doctors. ‘We’re about gradual progressive growth,’ says Barker.

Another exciting part of the business, the Strontium Alliance, provides a ‘symbiotic’ network through which members can win new business and ‘leverage’ their services, ‘particularly when seeking to do business with larger organisations’. Longer term, says Barker, the alliance could act as a way of screening potential acquisitions without the need for expensive due diligence.

Strontium, on its way to profit with sales on the rise, is chaired by Michael Metcalfe, who was involved with financial giant Man Group during its 1994 float and subsequent growth.

This article first published in Growth Company Investor (July 2007)