Profits more than double at Merseyside legal and insurance services firm Carpenters Group with owners Donna Scully and John Carpenter pocketing £1.3m in dividends. Tony McDonough reports

Merseyside legal and insurance services firm Carpenters Group is reporting another year of healthy revenue growth and soaring profits.

Latest accounts filed on Companies House for the 12 months to December 31, 2024, reveal Wirral-based Carpenters saw a 17% rise in revenues to £73m. Pre-tax profits more than doubled to £2.9m from £1.34m in 2023.

This further growth is good news for joint owners Donna Scully, who was Merseyside Woman of the Year in 2024, and John Carpenter who share £1.3m in dividends, on top of their annual salaries. In the last four years the pair have shared more than £3m in dividends.

With offices in Birkenhead, Liverpool, Leeds, Haywards Heath, Manchester and Glasgow, Carpenters Group employed more than 1,360 people in 2024 up from 1,220 in 2023. It provides legal services to insurance companies and brokers and handles personal injury claims.

Writing in the annual report, chief executive Donna Richards said the firm was investing in artificial intelligence (AI) to ensure faster decision-making and processing times for customers.

“The expansion of subrogated recovery and defendant work added to the growth of the business,” she said.

“The group continues to see an improvement in the life cycle of cases and is expecting that will continue through 2025 and onwards, albeit court delays across the sector continue.”

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She added: “During 2024 Carpenters Group continued to invest in the development of technology, introducing enhanced processes and using automation where appropriate, while ensuring the customer experience continues to improve.

“The group continues to invest in AI across key parts of the operation with this scope widening as the roadmap and model matures.”

On the acceleration of AI implementation, she said: “2025 has seen the approval of a knowledge-based transfer partnership with the University of Liverpool to further develop the use of AI and data in the business.”