Scrutton Bland sees opportunity in the East

Following the addition of Luke Morris to the Partner team in 2017, the Accountancy, Tax, and Insurance advisory firm has made substantial developments to its corporate offering, attracting a number of high-profile clients who have engaged Scrutton Bland to advise them on a range of accountancy, acquisition, due diligence, business sale, valuation, and other consultancy projects.

Well positioned in the heart of the region, the Scrutton Bland team which Luke has spent the past year growing is now providing transactional and compliance advice to clients across Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire, as well as to more geographically spread businesses who have interests across the UK. Luke recently represented the firm at the global conference of Nexia international, the world’s largest independent global network of accounting and consulting firms, and is convinced that the UK remains internationally competitive and that the international market for buying and selling UK businesses is buoyant and will continue to grow:

“We are seeing a number of active investors looking to acquire business interests in the UK and, in particular, the east of England” explains Luke, “investors are looking to UK businesses for a number of reasons: they may wish to expand their customer base for example or to diversify their products and services but increasingly we are seeing an increase in interest in the new technology sector. More and more we are becoming a knowledge-based economy and with the world’s largest research and development sector operating in our region this has resulted in greater demand for our Cambridge office.”

It is not only new technology which seems to be on the up, according to Luke: “we are also seeing deal activity in more traditional sectors, such as agriculture, manufacturing, retail, tourism and hospitality, and haulage and logistics and have seen pleasing growth, particularly through our Ipswich and Colchester offices. The East of England provides the opportunity to tap into a valuable talent pool, whilst at the same time offering established transport and logistic links and these tick many of the boxes for a lot of investors on our books.”

The firm has invested heavily in new hires over the past year to meet this increased demand, a trend set to continue through 2018.

“Since joining the firm we have grown our corporate offering through a combination of the in-house expertise and by making some key external hires” explains Luke, “Scrutton Bland is an exciting place to be. As a firm, our core interest is providing the very best service for our clients. The way we are structured means that we are nimble and can continually develop and enhance our services to meet the changing demands of the market” says Luke, “we are multi-disciplinary, not just accountants. Scrutton Bland has an exceptionally broad range of services, all based in-house which means we have access to all the expertise and advice a client might need.  We see things differently from the traditional approach and we have consciously steered away from the one-track, siloed attitude which used to be prevalent within the industry. As a firm, we have listened to the market and invested in the long-term relationships with our clients and we look to support them with a holistic service rather than a purely transactional approach often associated with this kind of advice.”

Luke Morris has an impressive background having started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers before relocating to the Middle East where he worked for Ernst & Young as an adviser to the Central Bank of Kuwait amidst the financial crisis of 2008. His international experience was then continued as he completed projects in the USA and Canada for EY before returning to the UK and focusing on his career in the region. He moved to Suffolk on joining Scrutton Bland and has recently been appointed as Chair of the Ipswich and Suffolk Business Club.

ENDS

For more information on Scrutton Bland please contact: 
Erica Gilson
Marketing & Business Development Director
t: 01206 838400
Email

Note to editors:
The Scrutton Bland Group (Scrutton Bland) includes Scrutton Bland LLP and Scrutton Bland Financial Services Limited and is a provider of insurance broking, accountancy, tax, employees benefits and chartered independent financial advice. From offices in Colchester, Ipswich, Cambridge and Diss, Scrutton Bland serve a range of clients from small owner managed businesses to large corporate organisations and offers professional advice on personal investments through to work place pensions.