BDO in office renovation to make room for PKF staff

BDO IS UNDERTAKING major office refurbishment as it prepares to accommodate 400 extra staff following the firm’s merger with PKF, Accountancy Age has learned.

With no staff due to be lost in the process, and an additional 70 BDO staff moving in from its Hatfield office, the population of 55 Baker Street is set to exceed 1,500.

To that end, new meeting rooms, training and learning suites are under construction on the lower floors, while open-plan desk space is being created on the upper floors.

While Baker Street undergoes significant changes, PKF’s former Farringdon office will be sub-let until its lease expires in 2015, when it will be divested.

BDO COO Mark Sherfield told Accountancy Age the completion of the project will be a “proud moment”.

He said: “This is the time when we can make the most of our consolidated resources, knowledge-sharing and best working practices, for the good of our clients and people. It’s also an important milestone in our merger integration that allows teams to work more closely together and for clients to know we’re all under one roof in London.

“We put together a group of people sitting in different parts of the business to contribute and advise us on how best to use the office space around them. We also held a series of mini tours before the legacy PKF teams moved in, so they could get to know the building, visualise where they would be sitting and walk around the local area.”

The London office is the last of the six co-locations being carried out, with Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Leeds now complete.