Baldwins Accountancy Group has added three more local practices to its group totalling £620,000 in fee income, as part of the firm’s national strategic expansion plans which have seen it more than double the number of offices across the country over the last 12 months, and team up with the CogitalGroup, set up by ex-Deloitte global chairman John Connolly
Birmingham-based Finnieston Berry joins Baldwins having grown its client base to more than 200 since it was formed by Catherine Finnieston and Elaine Berry in 1998. The firm has a turnover of £120,000 and provides services such as accounts, audit and taxation, as well as tax relief claims for research and development.
Finnieston Berry Partnership Ltd’s eight members of staff will be retained and will split their work between Baldwins’ offices in Tamworth and Stourbrige, with the current office on in Birmingham’s jewellery quarter used as a space for meeting clients.
Catherine Finnieston, partner at Finnieston Berry Partnership Ltd said: ‘We’ve spent the best part of 20 years building up a solid reputation in general accountancy services, and joining forces with Baldwins will enable us to take the business to the next level.’
‘We’ll now be able to offer further expertise as we’ll have access to specialists in VAT, corporate finance and banking, while also being able to put more resources behind our current services to take on more clients.’
David Baldwin, director at Baldwins, said: ‘We’re thrilled that Finnieston Berry Partnership Ltd has joined the Baldwins Group and it gives us a presence in the centre of Birmingham.'
Baldwins has also acquired east Midlands firm Minshalls which has a turnover of £500,000. The acquisition will see Baldwins move staff from its current Ilkeston office to join the 12 staff at Minshalls’ office in Newthorpe.
Following the acquisition, the Newthorpe office will generate more than £1.3m in yearly fees and will immediately trade as Baldwins.
Shaun Carpenter, currently manager at Baldwins in Ilkeston, has also been promoted to director and will work alongside current Minshalls director Richard Minshall at the Newthorpe office.
Steve Harcourt, director at Baldwins in Nottingham, will head up the Nottingham and Newthorpe offices.
Minshall founded the firm in 1995, which is a general practice and looks after more than 500 clients covering tax, audit, compliance, payroll, bookkeeping and wider advisory needs.
He said: ‘Minshalls has consolidated its reputation locally as a provider of specialist accountancy services across a variety of sectors, so joining forces with the Baldwins Group provides us with greater coverage and significantly enhances the resources we will have available to us to service our clients.’
The third acquisition sees Baldwins expanding its presence into North Yorkshire for the first time via a merger with S V Bye, which has an office in Guisborough.
In common with the other two acquisitions, S V Bye will trade immediately as Baldwins, and all of its 17 members of staff will continue to work in its current office.
Derek Robinson, partner at SV Bye, will become a director and Jon Gresham, one of the firm’s managers, has been promoted as a director of Baldwins’ Guisborough office. Andrew Rowe, director at Baldwins’ office in Wynyard, will also be part of the management team at the Guisborough office.
S V Bye was originally formed in 1933, and is a general practice helping its clients with taxation, audits, accounts preparation and book-keeping. The firm also specialises in helping clients in rural business, charity and healthcare sectors.
John Baldwin, director at Baldwins, said: ‘This further investment in the group is testament to the success of our burgeoning business.
‘Each of the businesses we’ve acquired have a thriving client base, and has also enabled us to establish our presence in the heart of the UK’s second city and in North Yorkshire.
‘We will continue in our growth and have further expansion plans nationally. We will have more exciting announcements in the coming months and are proud to be one of the fastest growing accountancy practices in the UK, in conjunction with the Cogital Group.’
Following a recent spate of mergers, Baldwins has grown from 16 to 34 offices across the country, employing over 800 staff. In October 2016, it joined London firm Blick Rothenberg as part of the CogitalGroup, which is backed by HgCapital to create a new presence in the advisory services market. The firm claims revenue of £50m in fee income as a result of the mergers but the latest Companies House accounts show for Baldwins a turnover of £10-£15m.
