ACCOUNTANT and business consultant Ross Boyd has embarked on a major push into Scotland.
The strategic expansion is aimed at increasing the group’s turnover by 50 per cent within 18 months and will lead to a significant number of high-level posts in the longer term.
The new Glasgow-based operation is designed to capitalise on the successes enjoyed among SMEs in his Belfast and London practices, based on employing the latest technology to improve service delivery for clients.
He said: “Many accountancy firms are still adapting to modern, business led advice and technologically up-to-date practices.
“We aim to give clients a modern, informed, service backed by the latest advances in technology and there is room in the margin created by the Scottish market to allow us to do that while still competing on quality.
“Many traditional accountants see their role as making their clients compliant and safe. We subscribe to this doctrine but with one difference – we will also make them wealthier through our quality business insights and advice.”
Mr Boyd, who graduated from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, already has a strong portfolio of clients on the west coast of Scotland, ranging as far north as Oban.
He sees Scotland as fertile new territory which he is predicting will boost current turnover of £500,000 by £250,000 within 12 to 18 month.
He employs 12 people in Belfast and expects that number to be matched in the Glasgow office within a few years.
His business acumen is grounded in shipbuilding, where he cut his teeth after gaining a degree in naval architecture. After a career which encompassed engineering, international deals and costing ship repair work, he progressed to accountancy.
He worked with PKF, now part of BDO, in London and then Deloitte before being head-hunted by the mid-size firm in Belfast where he had trained.
He established his own firm in 2010, at the height of the recession.
“I knew that if I could get through the rough times of the worst downturn in living memory, I would be well set up and established when the economic weather eventually started to clear,” he said.
Around 60 per cent of his business is in Ireland, both north and south, with the rest is divided equally between Scotland and England.
