Accountants celebrates 30th anniversary

AN ACCOUNTANCY firm in South Yorkshire is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

Eric Thornton opened Thorntons Accountants in the summer of 1984, when the miner’s strike reached its peak with the Battle of Orgreave and unemployment levels in the UK topped 3.25m – the highest since the great depression.
 
During the late 1980s and 1990s the Cudworth-based company used much of its expertise to help ex-miners use the skills they had developed in the colliery to establish successful businesses of their own.
 
Today, the firm employs ten full time members, including three partners.
 
Gavin Spencer, Steve Heeley and Mathew Parsons all began their careers as trainees with the firm, steadily progressing through the ranks and going on to secure senior positions in the business. Thorntons is planning further expansion by recruiting a new apprentice. 
 
Partner Steve Heeley said: “Since 1984 there has been a dramatic transformation in the local economy. When the company was formed, few people considered self-employment as a career option, but as the mines and steelworks closed, many were able to lay the foundations of a wide variety of new businesses.
 
“Some of the businesses we have helped to nurture over the years have gone on to become very successful in their own right, responsible for employing hundreds of people throughout the region and we continue to represent some of the businesses that first starting using the firm when it opened its doors.

“Thirty years is a significant milestone for any business to achieve and we’re all very much looking forward to seeing what the next thirty will bring.”