Ernest Wilson: Reviews, Feedback, Complaints, Fees, Testimonials, T&Cs...


This article was originally written in 2018.

The company that refers to itself as Ernest Wilson and runs from the website ernest-wilson.co.uk is actually two companies - Ernest Wilsons & Co Ltd (company #03071112 ) and Ernest Wilson's (West Yorkshire) Ltd (company # 08476014).

Yes, the website and trading name use "Wilson" without an 's' at the end and the company names use "Wilsons" with an 's' at the end of the word in one case and "Wilson's" with an apostrophe and 's' in the second case.

There is also an Ernest Wilsons (International) Ltd (company # 09129410) registered to the same address. Ernest Wilsons (International) Ltd was a fully owned subsidiary of Ernest Wilsons & Co Ltd and was struck off the Companies House register in August 2018 via a via voluntary strike-off. You may find more information about Ernest Wilsons here.

Note: This article was written in Sept 2018 and some of the information below may be out of date. You should always seek the most current information and conduct your own research; we've provided some links below to assist you. Please also see our guide to interpreting reviews.

Update, Oct 2019: Begbies Traynor Group plc said on Oct 21, 2019 that it had acquired Ernest Wilson for £5.63m. On the same day, property consultancy firm Eddisons announced that they had bought Ernest Wilson! Perhaps, given the various similarly sounding companies that have been set up, called Ernest Wilsons or similar, there were actually two acquisitions made on the 21st of Oct. Or maybe there's something else going on here.

Update 2020: They have opened new offices in Northampton.

ernest wilson homepage

The website claims that they have been selling businesses since 1956. However, Ernest Wilson's (West Yorkshire) Ltd was registered only on 5th April, 2013 and Ernest Wilsons and Co Ltd was registered on 21st June 1995. We are unclear as to the basis for the 1956 claim.  

Address for both businesses: The Business Centre, Deanhurst Park, Gelderd Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS27 7LG. There are 5,266 other companies registered at this post code.
Phone: 0113 238 2900
Website: https://www.ernest-wilson.co.uk/ . They also have a blogspot site.
Social Media: The Ernest Wilsons have this LinkedIn company page with one employee and this page with no employees. They have a Twitter account with 384 followers and a Facebook presence.
Size: On the date of this review they had 652 businesses publicly listed for sale.
Fees: Ernest Wilson do not charge a retainer i.e. no up-front fees and they claim that they "don’t believe in asking for payment in advance". They go on the advise that no business should pay any agent who charges in advance. (Our take: The best brokers in the business - from investment bank grade brokers to corporate finance firms - do not take a client on without at least some advance fee. Read our page on broker fees here).

Information we have on this company: We have extensive information on this company supplied to us by previous clients. We have copies of their Terms & Conditions, fees, invoices, signed agreements, quotes, copies of their annual accounts and correspondence they've exchanged with previous clients. We have several examples of fees they've quoted to clients (and their fee structure).

Reviews

This company has review pages on multiple review sites. They are on Google reviews (if you do a search for the company name). They are also on Yell and Review Centre. We notice that some of the reviews in some locations are duplicates of reviews posted elsewhere.

Here's a partial screenshot of their reviews from The Review Centre:

reviews of ernest wilsons

The pattern here appears, to us, as unnatural. Reviewers have left only 5* reviews or 1* reviews, nothing in-between. That doesn't normally happen. It may well be that the company received several negative reviews and then worked on targeting satisfied clients, or others, to post 5* reviews to compensate and get their average up.

Fees

This is a no-sale-no-fee agent. They claim to charge no advance fee and only charge a fee at the point of selling your business. You might want to read our advice here on no-sale-no-fee deals and what the Mirror newspaper says about Ernest Wilson's no-sale-no-fee arrangement.

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Errors & Omissions: If there is any information on this page that you feel needs to be corrected, or other important data that you feel needs to be included, please contact us.