Grant Thornton reports strong performance
ACCOUNTANCY firm Grant Thornton has reported a strong fee performance from its Leeds office despite the economic downturn.
The office has reported a significant growth in fees over the last year, up from £18m to nearly £21m for its 2008 accounting period.
However the firm has not been immune from the economic downturn – announcing last week that it was axing 5% of its UK staff – a total of 225 jobs – with 2% of jobs expected to go in Leeds.
In the last year the firm has consolidated its presence in Leeds by centralising its 250 staff under one roof at 1 Whitehall Riverside, and key new appointments have been made across the firm.
The Leeds office is currently working with a number of clients who are performing well against difficult conditions, including Seabrook Crisps, fast-growing AIM-listed engineering business Redhall and Card Factory, the greetings card retailer that has just completed the purchase of 76 stores from one of its rivals.
The firm is also working closely with rail maintenance group Jarvis, which last week reported a healthy first half performance, as well as suit manufacturer Berwin & Berwin, whose boss Simon Berwin has just bought retail billionaire Sir Philip Green’s stake in Moss Bros.
Managing partner at Grant Thornton’s Leeds office, Jonathan Riley, said: “In a year of harmonisation and consolidation, not to mention the current economic climate in which we are seeing many of our competitors reducing headcount substantially, we are very pleased to announce our third successive year of double-digit growth across all of our service streams here in Leeds.
“We will continue to try and ensure consistency, as opposed to rapid spurts of growth followed by a lurch towards wide scale and swinging reductions in staff numbers, which always come at the price of staff morale and customer service.”
