Pearl is Crown's jewel - Celebrating 30 Years

1987: Margaret Thatcher was re-elected for a third term; the great storm blew in and Rick Astley was ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’. Against this backdrop a pearl of an idea led to the creation of a company that is now celebrating 30 successful years in business – Crown Workforce Management.

The company was founded from a management buy-out of the Sydney Development Corporation’s Midland Offices where Mike Hawkesford, Crown’s founder and CEO, had formed a team of 20 to develop a ‘softflow data capture’ rostering and time and attendance system.

“There was a good group of people in Lichfield who I had recruited who were highly skilled developers. I knew that we had a product that had potential. I believed in them both.”

Overdraft funding was used to finance the deal and the name Crown moved to the top of a long list when the company needed to register an available name with Companies House.