Legal franchise QualitySolicitors says it is ready for another expansion drive this year after a financial injection from its private equity owner.

The organisation said it has secured ‘substantial’ further investment from majority stakeholder Palamon Capital Partners. It would not specify how much has been invested but the Gazette understands it is a multi-million-pound figure.

Founder and president Craig Holt said the money will help to increase cost efficiency and develop technology. ‘We are also going to add to the network with a small number of firms of the right quality and ethos this year to further strengthen our coverage across the UK.’

QualitySolicitors was forced to fend off questions about the strength of the brand after Essex firm Fisher Jones Greenwood left the network of around 200 firms in November.

A two-year association with retailer WHSmith to place QS staff in branches came to a close last year, while predictions made by the company that 1,000 firms would have joined the network by now have fallen well short.

Holt said the company had listened to the views of members and consumers and is ‘sharpening our strategy’ in response.

Holt said: ‘It is often forgotten that QualitySolicitors is a relatively new business and we are still growing and developing. We are keen for the legal sector to understand in more detail what we are about and that innovation and new ways of highlighting the public value lawyers provide are not necessarily to be feared. 

‘We aim to engage more with the profession in future to further meet that objective.’

The company, which will this week begin a marketing campaign focused on family law, said its autumn advertising drive achieved a yearly 40% uplift on web visits and 80% increase in new business leads.