With the client bank growing the business employed its first staff member to be able to effectively deliver excellent customer service.

A big focus for the firm across the year was to begin thinking about its marketing and growth strategy. A new events calendar was launched and the first seminar for clients and prospective clients was presented at Adlington Hall.

Key EQ milestones

• Applewood employs its first staff member
• First seminar presented – ‘Live Well & Leave a Legacy’

1997

What else happened in this year?

In finance…

Annual UK Inflation: 3.1% CPI

Bank base rate:

• 6 May 6.2500 %
• 6 November 7.2500 %

IHT threshold: £215,000
 

In the charts…

Elton John re-recorded his 1973 “Candle in the Wind” as a tribute single to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, becoming the best-selling single of all time selling 4,770,000 copies.
 

On the screen…

James Cameron’s Titanic is released, achieving critical and commercial success – grossing $1,843,201,268 worldwide and winning 11 Academy Awards to tie Ben Hur (1959) for the most Oscars won by a single film in history.

Around the world…

• 3 May – Katrina and the Waves win the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Love Shine a Light, the first time the UK has won the competition since 1981
• 1 July – The UK transfers sovereignty of Hong Kong, the largest remaining British colony, to the People’s Republic of China
• 31 August – Diana Princess of Wales was killed in a car crash in Paris

In the UK…

• 1 May – Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain in a landslide election victory ending 18 years of Conservative rule
• 30 June – Publication of J. K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
• 4 November – BBC News launches a full-time online news service