Baker Tilly Manchester aims to double in five years

Baker Tilly’s Manchester office has unveiled plans to double in size within
five years, according to Mark Blakemore, managing partner.

Blakemore aims to take turnover at the city centre branch to more than £20m,
with staff numbers doubling to about 240.

The first stage of this strategy is in progress with a £500,000 refurbishment
of the firm’s premises in Brazennose House, Lincoln Square. The work involves
creating more offices, meeting rooms and a café.

Blakemore told the Manchester Evening News that the Manchester
office increased fee income by 24% to £10.5m in the year to the end of April and
that the firm’s ambition was to ‘double that figure over the next five years’.

‘We firmly believe there is the scope to achieve this – that the market is
receptive to an alternative to the Big Four firms, especially among larger
owner-managed businesses and smaller quoted companies’, he said.

Blakemore added that the firm would look for organic growth in Manchester by
bringing in teams of specialists to run new service lines, rather than acquiring
practices.