Bishop Fleming, the West-based accountancy firm which recently acquired the Bath office of rival Target, has announced new roles for the office team.
Target Accountants’ Andrew Sandiford has been appointed partner in charge of the office, which has been reopened under the Bishop Fleming brand.
Simon Morrison has been appointed office audit partner with Paul Morris confirmed as the tax partner.
Former Target associate directors Debbie Boulton and Duncan Nicholas have been confirmed as directors of business services, with Rachel Sestini appointed director of private client tax services, and Angela Brake as head of payroll services.
The office acquisition last month saved 47 jobs – although a number of staff were made redundant – and expanded Bishop Fleming’s reach still further in the South West. It now has the widest spread of offices throughout the South West of any accountants.
Target Chartered Accountants called in insolvency practitioners at PwC in November to administer the group’s operations across a number of its locations, including London and the Midlands, following a financial crisis created by the failure of its Independent Financial Advisory (IFA) business.
Bishop Fleming, which already had offices in Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Plymouth, Torquay, Truro, and Worcester, agreed the acquisition of Target Accountants’ Bath operations.
Bishop Fleming managing partner Matthew Lee said: “We are now working with Target’s former directors and staff to absorb their audit and tax operations and extend the greater breadth of Bishop Fleming services to their clients.
“Those greater services include nationally-recognised specialists in tax, VAT, international taxation, and key sectors such as charities, academies and schools, care homes, and the region’s tourism industry.
“Target’s accountancy clients will also see other benefits from this move. Those clients will now retain access to their former Target contacts but will also gain from the wider range of specialist skills that Bishop Fleming offers and a wider range of specialist partners.
Caption: Left to right, Matthew Lee, managing partner, Jerry O‘Sullivan, chief executive, with Andrew Sandiford, newly-appointed partner in charge of Bishop Fleming’s new Bath office.
