“McBrides have been our accountants for as long as I can remember, helping with VAT, tax, payroll – and giving us  the specialist support to help restructure our business when we wanted to move on. Hardly a week goes by without us receiving an approach from other accountants wanting our business – but we have no reason to move. We get great service, from people who understand us.”

business challenge

Back in 1993 Martin Hollingsworth and Roy Kennedy were running a successful carpet retail/wholesale business in Dartford. They had grown the business over the previous 11 years, focussing on personal service and fighting off stiff competition from national outfits.

The men were in their forties and had another generation waiting in the wings to take over the business. They were looking for a new challenge, but were not yet ready to hand over fully.

They decided to buy a public house and run that business alongside the carpet business. Then, another opportunity came along, when Tesco served a compulsory purchase order on the carpet trading premises.

how we helped

McBrides have been Martin and Roy’s accountants since they first started in business, providing the usual accountancy services, and helping them with the new business acquisition. Whilst Martin and Roy negotiated the sale of the property to Tesco themselves, they sought tax and restructuring advice from McBrides.

McBrides  also helped facilitate the eventual hand over to the next generation, providing practical advice, tax expertise, and input into the necessary partnership changes.

it all adds up

Today Martin and Roy, together with their wives, run the White Cross public house in Bexley.  Their partnership has proved just as successful at running a pub, as it was at retailing carpets.

“Our experience with McBrides has just highlighted how poor our previous accountants were. It really makes a difference, knowing that you are in safe hands, and that they have a whole range of expertise on offer, if we need it. We wish we had moved to them long before!”

Aztech Design and Build Limited provides repair design and building services to public and private clients. The company had been poorly served by its previous advisers, and approached McBrides for help with:

• getting statutory filing up-to-date
• tax planning
• getting and using management information

how we helped

A priority was to provide the directors with a better understanding of the annual accounts and the implications of the results, something the previous accountant had not undertaken previously. McBrides carried out an indepth review of the business and agreed a programme of action with the directors.

Continuing taxation issues were resolved with the relevant authorities and new tax efficient remuneration structures were put in place to better utilise cashflow.

The remuneration review and restructure identified a number of tax refunds that should have been claimed by the company in previous years. The resulting refund provided a substantial boost to the company’s cashflow.

A review of VAT procedures led to further cashflow savings; and a focussed effort on bookkeeping procedures led to the directors preparing their own VAT returns, and gaining a more accurate picture of trading results and the up-to-date cash position of the company.

it all adds up

These activities provided the company and its directors not only with monetary savings, including refunds from the tax authorities, but also a more detailed understanding of the financial workings of their company.

The directors now enjoy a close working relationship with their advisers. They know that if problems or queries arise, the team at McBrides can be relied upon to respond quickly and accurately.