Professionals: Not-for-profit brewery up and running with help of accountants; Law firm sees ‘early benefits’ of merger; and more

IGNITION Brewery, a new London brewery that provides employment and training to people with learning disabilities, is running smoothly with help from Yorkshire-based accountancy firm Garbutt + Elliott.

Matthew Grant, director at Garbutt + Elliott and brewing industry specialist, assisted the Ignition team by explaining the complex setup processes, answering questions both from within the organisation and from third parties, plus advising on how to become an official not-for-profit company.

Ignition Brewery has just started commercial production and hopes to employ up to ten people with learning disabilities by the end of the year.   

Mr Grant said: “We’re delighted to have been able to work with a business as societally active as Ignition Brewery. The company not only makes excellent beer, it substantially contributes to the local community and beyond. I look forward to working closely with Nick and his team in the future as they continue to grow and take on more staff.”

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THE group chief executive of Irwin Mitchell says the latest stage in the group’s integration with Thomas Eggar heralds the “next step in the development of the business” and said the early benefits of the merger announced six months ago were already being seen.

The firms announced merger plans last year creating a £250m law firm ranked 11th in the UK with about 300 partners based in 14 locations across the country, expanding its private client and business legal services considerably.

The merger increased the firm’s presence in London and the south east and half of the group’s revenue now comes from clients in the southern half of the UK.

Andrew Tucker said: “Bringing our brands together has made us stronger and created a diverse business that will enable us to offer both private and business clients an unrivalled breadth of services.

“We have always said this merger would be transformational for our group and adopting the Irwin Mitchell brand across the five former Thomas Eggar offices is the next part of this. There is considerable excitement among our people about the opportunity we have created and we’ve already seen some very encouraging examples of how the merger will benefit all areas of our business.

“We have therefore decided to push ahead with the integration as quickly as possible, making the necessary investments to support this, to enable teams from both businesses to come together as one group as quickly as possible.”

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ARMSTRONG Watson Financial Planning has been awarded the status of Chartered Financial Planners for another year.

The chartered firm status is awarded and retained by firms who can demonstrate commitment to developing knowledge, maintaining ethical standards of practice, based around a client’s needs and requirements and adhere to its Code of Ethics which is enforced through disciplinary sanctions.

Andrew Kilby, managing director of Armstrong Watson Financial Planning, said: “To retain our award, we must ensure the advice, service and ongoing support we provide to our clients is of the highest quality. Our advice must be based solely on our clients’ researched needs, and provided by someone who is competent to discuss products and services that meet their requirements.
“I am extremely proud of the whole team here at Armstrong Watson to have worked towards achieving chartered firm status once again. It is a ‘seal of approval’ on the work we carry out in supporting our clients.’”