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UHY Hacker Young grabs WKH

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3rd Apr 2012
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Top 20 accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young Group has ramped up its expansion programme with the recruitment of WKH Chartered Accountants to its network.

This follows the firm opening an office at the Aztec Business Park in Bristol last month – its nineteenth location in the UK.

The WKH deal adds a further three offices to the group covering Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire, taking its total up to 22.

The WKH offices in Letchworth Garden City, Royston and Cambridge will bring an additional 40 staff and eight partners.

Howard Spencer, chairman of UHY Hacker Young, said: “WKH will be a very welcome addition to the group. It will expand our coverage to a very important part of the country and will allow us to pool resources, talent and expertise to provide an enhanced level of service for clients.”

David Smyth [pictured], senior partner at WKH, added: “The tie-up means our clients will be able to access an integrated range of services across the UK and, via UHY International, overseas.”

On the firm’s expansion plans,  Spencer told AccountingWEB they have a shortlist of target areas in which they are seeking new member firms in order to expand the group and this region was top of the list.

“WKH is a well-established firm who themselves have ambitious expansion and growth plans which very much fit with the group ethos. We felt like we had a good fit with the individual partners at WKH,” Spencer said.

In the last couple of years the group has taken on new members and opened offices in Kent, South Wales, Bristol and Winchester.

Spencer added: “This was all part of our expansion plan to have national coverage. We only have a couple of gaps remaining in our national coverage – in the South West, i.e. Dorset, Devon and Cornwall; in Leeds and in Belfast. Beyond that we have no intention of taking on any more new member firms as we do not want to get into the position of there being competition between member firms in their local market as this could affect the collegial feel of the group.”

WKH, which has sector expertise in agriculture, academy schools, recruiters and professional firms, will also change its name from WKH Chartered Accountants to UHY WKH Partnership.

The WKH Group includes wealth management company Provisio; Virtual Business Source, which offers payroll and bookkeeping services; and HR Service Centre, providing HR support and consultancy.

WKH’s client base ranges across UK subsidiaries of foreign groups, mid-tier companies, owner-managed businesses, pension schemes, professional firms and charities.

It offers accounting and business development services including tax mitigation and compliance, strategic planning, VAT, personal and corporate tax guidance, auditing and payroll processing.

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By Moonbeam
10th Apr 2012 11:11

Always glad to know there's room for us sole practitioners

News of the consolidators makes me feel sad for some of their staff. I personally wouldn't want to work in a sausage machine and most of my clients prefer a real human to look after them who lives in the same environment that they do.

I don't think big is the way to go if you want to avoid high blood pressure.

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