First Yorkshire office for business advisory firm

Opus Business Advisory Group has recruited Mark Ranson, a restructuring & insolvency specialist, to open the group’s first office in Leeds from where it can serve the whole of Yorkshire.

With existing offices in London, Croydon, Bristol, Milton Keynes, Birmingham and Liverpool the company says this latest expansion provides increased geographic coverage and additional capacity to deliver projects.

The group provides restructuring & insolvency, corporate finance, forensic and other allied specialties from each office within its UK office network.

It has grown rapidly since formation in 2013 – from five partners and two locations at formation to 17 partners, over 40 team members and eight locations.

Ranson brings 25 years of experience of restructuring and insolvency processes to Opus, with prior partnership roles being with national and regional chartered accountancy practices.

He said: “The decision to join Opus, a dedicated team of business advisory specialists with particular expertise in restructuring and insolvency, was quickly made once I saw the capability within the organisation.

“2021 is going to be an interesting year for businesses in Yorkshire.  The pandemic has significantly affected many of them and, through Government backed schemes, many have been offered short and medium term support through their funders.

“With a vaccine being rolled out, it is probable that the remaining Government support will be phased out.

“It will therefore be important for all business to review their finances and ensure they have sufficient cashflow support for the new normal.

“My recruitment is a first step as we intend to grow the team in Leeds. But with the strength of the Opus team behind the office we have the scale to undertaken assignments of any size from the off.”

Trevor Binyon, a founding partner of Opus, said: “2020 was a significant year for Opus with the recruitment of a team into Bristol earlier in the year, now followed by the recruitment of Mark to commence our operations in Leeds and combined with the opening of an office in Newcastle upon Tyne.

“As a firm we aim to marry the technical expertise available in all of our offices with deep local knowledge by recruiting those who truly know their locality.

“It has taken us a significant time to find the right person to lead the firm’s operations in Yorkshire, and I look forward to the future with confidence.

“With a further significant expansion to be announced soon it appears as if 2021 will be every bit as eventful as the last 12 months.”