In early September the accountancy firm announced it was opening a second office in Liverpool city centre, creating space for an additional 150 staff. Tony McDonough reports

Accountancy firm BDO, which is rapidly expanding in Liverpool has revealed a 25% surge in annual revenues to £578m.

The figure for the 12 months to July 5, 2019, marks a seventh consecutive year of growth and includes a 10% boost following the firm’s merger with Moore Stephens LLP in February 2019. 

BDO’s profits increased by 26% to £134m, including five months of post-merger profits – will enable the firm to continue investment in the business, notably spending £4m on developing data analytics and audit processing software over the coming year. Average distributable profit per partner (PEP) increased 8.7% to £602,000.

In early September BDO, which employs almost 5,000 people across 17 UK locations, announced it was opening a second office in Liverpool city centre, creating space for an additional 150 staff.

Less than two years ago the firm took an additional 5,500 sq ft at its Temple Street base, taking the total accommodation up to 17,085 sq ft. Now employing 250 people in the city, BDO is keen to recruit more at its new office at One Tithebarn with takes its total office space to 25,000 sq ft.

It moves into the building, on the corner of Tithebarn Street and Old Hall Street over the coming weeks and says it has developed strong links with universities in the city and wider region to support recruitment as the business grows.

This year, BDO promoted 13 partners internally, including Steven Roberts who was promoted to audit partner in the North West. The firm also appointed 14 new partners from other firms, counting tax partner Liam O’Doherty and M&A partner Rob McCann amongst the new appointments made in the North West.

A further 1,500 promotions were made across the business, representing almost a third of BDO’s UK workforce, while 390 trainees were recruited – including a record cohort of school leavers.

Ed Dwan, partner and head of BDO in the region, said: “It’s been a landmark year for our business with continued organic growth being enhanced by our merger with Moore Stephens.

“This is reflected within our region in which we’ve seen strong growth across the business, creating the leading accountancy firm advising entrepreneurial mid-sized businesses, and a firm that can confidently challenge its larger competitors in all areas of audit, tax and advisory work.”