Change of brand for two of region’s accountancy firms

Two of the North West’s expanding accountancy firms are changing names after being acquired by one of the UK’s fastest growing business advisory groups, Baldwins, two years ago.

CLB Coopers and Cassons, which collectively have four offices across Manchester, Rossendale, Bolton and Lancaster will be known as Baldwins from Monday, February 18, to reflect the offices’ expanding expertise.

Including the four CLB Coopers and Cassons offices, Baldwins now has five offices across the North West after recently acquiring Booth Ainsworth in Stockport.

These offices are collectively generating a fee income in excess of £19m and service a significant number of SME businesses providing specialist services such as tax, audit, accountancy, corporate finance and insolvency.

Baldwins, a CogitalGroup company, is one of the UK’s leading business services groups.

Currently CogitalGroup has 6,000 people operating from 177 offices in seven countries, with revenue in excess of £450m.

David Travis, North West regional managing director at Baldwins, said: “This name change reflects the wider network of accountancy expertise both firms are now accessing for our varied client base that we service across the region.

“It has been business as usual for CLB Coopers and Cassons working as part of the Baldwins Group since the acquisition, and we are now ready to ramp up the added benefit of additional services offered by the group, such as banking and finance, restructuring and insolvency, and new IT platforms that will result in efficiencies and sophisticated reporting for our clients.

“It also provides an exciting opportunity for us to grow our niche services, such as corporate finance, around the UK using Baldwins’ network of offices nationwide.”

He added: “Not only has joining forces with a wider network of offices seen an invaluable opportunity for our existing workforce to develop their knowledge into new areas, it strengthens our ability to attract the very best professionals, which bodes well for the future of the firm.”

David Baldwin, board director at Baldwins, said: “We saw the North West as an opportunity to work in an area with undoubted business and entrepreneurial heritage, great prospects, friendly people and, most importantly, the businesses we chose to acquire had terrific leadership and teams, which has enabled us to grow Baldwins in to the North West.”

Speaking about the success of the firm, David added: “Our expansion has enabled Baldwins to continue to offer a tailored service, delivered by local people, and this model is implemented throughout all of our 80-plus offices across the UK.”