In a sudden departure, Baldwin senior, along with two other directors, David Baldwin and Shaun Knight, have all resigned. David Baldwin, son of the founder, was effectively running the business as managing director with Knight as chief operating officer while Baldwin senior had oversight of the business.

Baldwin junior is an ACCA-trained accountant who started with the family firm in 1998.

In a statement Cogital Group said: ‘We can confirm that John and David Baldwin and Shaun Knight have left the business.

‘Alyn North has taken over as CEO, who brings huge experience to the role.’

Cogital has not given a reason for the team’s departure.

North has been Cogital's group chief commercial officer since March 2019 after serving as its group chief financial officer from March 2016. He trained with PwC, where he worked in corporate finance, and before joining Baldwins spent five years at Countrywide plc, where he was chief finance and operating officer, London & premier, and commercial divisions of the national estate agency group, as well as a board member.

Alyn North

Originally based in Birmingham, Baldwins Group has made a string of acquisitions since joining Cogital Group in 2016, becoming its UK regional firm.

The Baldwins Group employs more than 3,000 staff across the UK with an annual turnover of approximately £225m.

Its acquisition strategy forms part of an ambitious expansion plan to grow the Cogital Group into a top 10 accounting firm in the UK, challenging major mid-tier players.

The latest edition of the annual Accountancy Daily top 75 firms survey places Cogital in 8th place, with reported fee income of £225m, up from 12th position and income of £117.5m the previous year.

In August last year Baldwins reported it had undertaken 11 acquisitions in as many months adding a further 36 offices to its national network. They included Fox Evans in Coventry; Andrews, Orme & Hinton in Shrewsbury; Geraint Humphreys & Co in Oswestry and Gorings Chartered Accountants in Ilkeston.

Baldwins has also acquired Holywell-based Gardners Chartered Accountants, Aberdeen-based Williamson and Dunn Chartered Accountants, Rothmans Chartered Accountants with offices in Havant, Fareham and Sutton along with Treasury Chartered Accountants in Portsmouth.

Other acquisitions are Kelsall Steele Chartered Accountants, based on Truro Business Park, Truro, and Perrins Chartered Accountants, which is located at The Strand, Barnstaple, along with Scott-Moncrieff in Scotland and Broomfield Alexander in South Wales as well as Booth Ainsworth in Stockport.