Set up by former KPMG partner Warren Mead in February 2023, Sumer is backed by private equity firm Penta Capital as primary funders. Unlike other consolidators, Sumer invests on a shared ownership model, investing in growth oriented firms and once in place they put in additional investment to finance specific acquisitions by the firms.

Sumer has hit revenue of £100m in just over 12 months since its first acquisition and now has over 40 offices and 1,000 colleagues. The group operates on a shared ownership model and invests in firms which come together as regional hubs.

The group has made eight acquisitions in the last year, all of the firms focused on the SME sector, with a strong growth pipeline targeting a further six to seven accountancy firms in 2024.

This rapid scale-up has been achieved through targeted acquisitions and strong organic growth.

Recent acquisitions include Cowgills with fee income of over £20m, EQ Accountants with £9m plus revenue, and most recently Monahans, which reported as part of MHA.

Sumer’s strategy is to form regional hubs throughout the UK, focused exclusively on the SME market, and retaining the individual firm identities and brands.

Warren Mead, chief executive officer of Sumer, said: ‘We invest in firms which become our regional hubs and the way that works is we take a majority equity stake but the existing management team have a significant stake in the business themselves. We provide them with capital and support to grow.

‘We have eight regional hubs, soon to be nine, so we can turbocharge that collaboration between the hubs. Monahans is really strong in agriculture as an example, and we’ve got other firms like EQ who are also strong in agricultural clients and we bring them together help to them to go to market together.

‘Firms like Cowgills which have just joined us have a really strong corporate finance practice and we make that skill available to our clients across the country rather than just in the area that Cowgills covers today.’

In future, the firms will report as a single entity under the Sumer group with first year’s results due by 31 March with revenue estimated at £100m in terms of full run rate. Mead expects revenue to ‘grow quite rapidly’ with other acquisitions.

‘Under the shared ownership model, it is really important that the partners and the next generation of talent in each of our firms feel that they are part of the ownership, and actually have a huge say in the decision making of the firms.’

Group firms will retain their branding and are not required to leave an existing network if they find it is beneficial to the business.

‘We see ourselves as a national practice across the whole of the UK and Ireland, we have got pretty good geographic cover already and we are looking for six or seven more hubs in the next year and we are on track to do that.’

London is a target area for expansion; so far Sumer has invested in London firm Simmons Gainsford and is eyeing up further opportunities in the capital. ‘It is a huge market and we would expect to grow in London,’ Mead said.  

‘We work with our hubs on further acquisitions so it has to be right for them and right for us, and when it is then we co-invest in that business together. So our regional hub will take ownership in a business that they acquire as well as us,’ Mead added.

There are no plans to rebrand the firms, which will be built on the strength of the firms’ local identities.

‘We think there’s a lot of value in the regional identity; we think that local accountants need to be embedded in the community, and for someone like Monahans their brand is really well known in the west country, and we think there’s value in it. There are no plans to change everything to Sumer.’

Mead is ambitious for Sumer, saying he wants to ‘build a world class firm’.

‘The two most important things are shared values – they have to have the same commitment to small and medium sized business clients that we have, the right ethics and the right mindset, but they have to be committed to growth.

‘We’ve got a huge amount of momentum in terms of the growth of our firms so that is more important than size. It is about a partner group that is up for growth and really care about the SME clients that they work with,’ he said.

With the accountancy profession facing high levels of consolidation, there is pressure on firms to plan for the future, particularly as partners approach retirement.

‘Succession planning is a huge industry issue, and so we think our model really helps the industry in terms of solving succession planning,’ Mead added.

‘There’s also a big issue with technology and being part of a £100m revenue grouping means that we can help firms with the investment required in technology and knowhow, so that is an important part of our proposition, as well as helping them with the increasing complexity of compliance.

‘We are very committed to high levels of quality in everything that we do and helping the firms with that is a big attraction for them.’

In terms of centralised services and integrating back office, this is not part of the vision for the group.

‘The firms have all kept their existing practice management systems and we have built a data warehouse that sits across the top of all their management systems, and uses some AI to go in and interrogate them,’ Mead explained.

‘We actually think things have moved on from doing very hard integration and you can use technology to work around that. We think that is a much smarter way of doing that.’

‘The regional hubs keep their HR and finance people, and we augment that because we’re investing in those firms to grow so they’ll need more of those sorts of people and skills to deliver that growth.

‘What we try to do is supplement it with subject matter specialists that maybe a hub on its own could not afford. For example, we have general counsel, a mergers and acquisitions team, and technology people who are available to support the hubs. We talk about having hub support.’

In terms of the SME market, demand for advisory and accountancy services is high.

‘Clients need our help like never before, there is so much business complexity out there and it has been such a challenging time for entrepreneurs over the last five years, with Brexit and Covid, supply chain issues, and rising interest rates, and the cost of living, the war for talent. It’s been brutal and so there is huge demand for accounting services and for really great trusted advice.

‘So consequently the biggest challenge for all of us is having enough of those skilled, talented people to support our clients. We think our model really helps us with that because it means as a grouping we can have access to better training, support, equity incentivisation models for colleagues. So there is a lot we are doing on that, but undeniably there is a shortage of talent in the market.’

The market for SME accountancy services is valued at somewhere in the region of £10bn in the UK.

‘It is a huge market, I think we have the opportunity to take a very substantial part of that market over the next five to 10 years so you can certainly expect to see us grow very, very quickly,’ said Mead. ‘We’ve grown to a £100m in a year, I see no reason why that rate of growth wouldn’t continue.’

‘We would look at any firm that shares our values and culture, and passion for smaller businesses and is focused on the market that we are which is entrepreneurs and owner managed businesses. So as long as they have the right values and serve the right clients, then we are absolutely open to looking at them.’

A ninth acquisition will be announced shortly pending necessary approvals from the Financial Conduct Authority as the firm has a small FCA-regulated part of the business. Sumer is also in discussion with a number of firms in Ireland with a view to further acquisitions.

The Sumer hubs are Monahans and RT Marke & Co (south west), RMT Accountants & Business Advisors (north east), Jerroms (West Midlands), Simmons Gainsford (London), Carpenter Box (south), Cowgills (north west) and EQ Accountants (Scotland).