Member Article

Job creation follows premises purchase for growing Durham accountancy

Certax Durham, the Durham franchise of national accountancy network Certax, has recruited 8 new members of staff following a continued growth period.

Based on Aycliffe Business Park since August 2013, directors Matthew McConnell and Jonathan Tait bought purchased their own two storey premises on the site at the end of 2015, after renting part of a nearby office block for two years.

Since then Certax Durham has added eight new employees to its growing team, boosting it to 17, and has plans to add a further six employees to the team over the next year.

It has increased its client list from 700 to more than 1,000 customers, which has put Certax on course to double turnover again this year.

Certax has also successfully let the whole ground floor of the building to various new tenants, including Creativehill, JT Construction, Just Money UK and Harrison Brown Financial Services, while retaining the first floor for its own business.

McConnell said: “We moved into a nearby building in August 2013, but we only had one half of it and we very quickly outgrew it.

“We had an option to purchase it at the time, but it made more sense to buy a whole building from a financial point of view.

“We were growing our client base quite rapidly because we’re competitively priced in our market place and we haven’t changed our model, so our clients stay with us.

“So we had to expand and buying our own building was the most logical, natural progression for the company.

“We also had to bring more members of staff in because we were doing a lot of the hands-on work and we needed more people in the company to free up time for us to develop and grow the business.”

Tait added: “We’re ambitious and we had a long-term plan but we’ve probably achieved more than we thought we did when we first set out.

“What’s important for us is that we control that growth carefully, continue to give all our clients good value for money and ultimately keep them happy.

“We’re a national network of accountants but with a very specific local focus. We offer a wide range of services with the experience, expertise and specialism normally afforded to a national firm of accountants, but with a local, personal and friendly service that our clients will come to rely on year after year.”

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