Appointment of New Board Members

The managing partner of the Bristol office of Haines Watts has been appointed to the board responsible for growing the SME specialist accountancy firm nationwide.

Matthew Bracher is one of just four members of the national Haines Watts board, tasked with restructuring Haines Watts following a major acquisition of the London and Birmingham elements of the organisation last month.

Based out of offices in Bath Street in the city centre, Matthew joins Stephen Lucey in Cardiff, Ben Loveday from Reading and Donna Bulmer, the Group Managing Partner, from Newcastle on the new board as the firm looks to focus on growth in regional conurbations around the UK.

He said that in the South West – ranging from Cornwall to Swindon – the company expected to target the business communities already covered by existing offices, as well as developing the Haines Watts offering into new locations.

“It’s great news for small and medium-sized businesses both in existing locations and in areas where we don’t currently have a presence,” he said. “The restructure will see our offices in each region working more closely together, so we can refine our client offering in terms of sharing expertise, skills and knowledge.

“As a board, we’ll be looking to develop the overall Haines Watts business to increasingly reflect the emerging needs and priorities of our clients with a focus on regional characteristics as well as solutions to generic business challenges.

“I’m personally looking forward to having a louder voice to support the South West SME community within the Haines Watts group, and to providing our existing and future client base with a consistent, quality business advisory service from across all our regional offices.

“I’m also looking forward to having a greater influence over the strategic direction of what we do and how we work with our clients.

“Ultimately, our success as a business is completely dependent on providing what our clients want. Our future growth is driven by our ability to deliver quality advice, excellent service and through trusted relationships with our clients., who are our greatest advocates.”

Haines Watts is an association of independent firms operating under a joint banner. Prior to the recent acquisition its 60 offices nationwide had a combined turnover of some £105m.

Nationwide, the SME accountancy specialist is now targeting 20 per cent annual growth for the next three to five years in order to maintain its top 20 national ranking.

In Bristol alone, an office of some 55 staff is seeing turnover increase by around 20 per cent to a forecast annual turnover of £4.7 during this tax year. Previously, rapid expansion saw staff numbers from 20 to 55 in just five years, with turnover trebling during the same period.

Mr Bracher said the new national board would oversee greater sharing of skills and knowledge around the joint client base, as well as the regionalisation of support services to more fully reflect the increasing collaboration between the regional offices.

“A prime concern for most of our clients is that we maintain our personal relationships with them, so that they can have trust in what we do,” he said.

“From my involvement on a national basis I can have a much greater say in group policy as to how we enhance those relationships and that trust.

“The South West has some brilliant businesses offering pioneering, nationally-relevant products and services. We’re going to proudly continue to support them and ensure that we are effectively structured to enable other entrepreneurs and SMEs to take advantage of our expertise.”