Grant Thornton Scotland bucks UK trend with 11% rise in turnover

Published on Thursday 19 November 2009 21:18

GRANT Thornton's Scottish practice yesterday posted a rise in turnover, bucking the downward trend set by the UK results for the accountancy firm.

Turnover in Scotland rose by 11 per cent in the year to 30 June to 17.9 million, compared with a drop of 4 per cent throughout the UK as a whole to 378.2m.

Profit per partner fell by 19 per cent to 201,000 as the firm absorbed restructuring costs associated with its takeover of rival RSM Robson Rhodes in 2007.

As part of the restructuring, the firm reduced its partner count from 286 to 235, with about 200 staff also being made redundant and a further 150 staff redeployed.

But Robert Hannah, managing partner at Grant Thornton Scotland, said the practice north of the Border had maintained the same number of partners and had made only seven of its 200 staff redundant. He added that the Scottish practice had also recruited 11 graduate trainees this year, compared with eight last year.

Hannah told The Scotsman: "To a certain extent, Scotland is sheltered from the recession, due to the size of the public sector north of the Border. But our tax team has also been working hard to generate business and, as you would expect during a recession, our corporate insolvency team is busy."

Grant Thornton was last week appointed to handle the administration of Edinburgh-based Kenmore Property Group.

In the UK as a whole, the firm is falling further behind the "big four" accountancy practices, although it did manage to grow its audit practice by 3.4 per cent to 121.2m, placing it above Ernst & Young in terms of audit work.

Last month, rival firm BDO reported a 5 per cent slump in full-year revenue to 335m.