14 focus on oxfordshire


Aiming for a string of M40 offices


Fresh from creating one of the biggest independent accountancy and business advisory firms within the Oxfordshire - Buckinghamshire M40 corridor, Whitley Stimpson is set to move to a new home in High Wycombe, writes John Burbidge


It’s new office will be four times the size of its current premises and is a tangible example of the firm’s strategic ambition to grow its size and capabilities – by establishing several offices along the M40 corridor.


Currently, Whitley Stimpson has offices in High Wycombe, Banbury where the firm was founded in 1931, and Bicester, the home of Baxter, Payne and Haigh (BPH Whitley Stimpson) with whom Whitley Stimpson merged in April.


Jonathan Walton, lead director at Whitley Stimpson (High Wycombe) explained: “The merged Bicester office, for example, has enhanced our M40 corridor presence but also provides better access to the Oxford


business market. Offices along the M40 will make it simpler for our staff to be more flexible in their working and easier for our clients to visit any office.”


The merger has enabled Whitley Stimpson to reinforce its position as a Top 100 accountancy firm and one of the region’s leading business advisers. Clients of both merging firms will benefit from the fresh scope, professional skills and depth of experienced advice that can now be brought to bear on their business requirements.


With the business world becoming more complex, Walton believes that “…no businessman should talk numbers or strategy before speaking to his business adviser.”


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Walton, one of the Whitley Stimpson’s eight senior directors, makes no secret of the firm’s desire for rapid growth. By the end of 2014, staffing at the firm will have increased by 50% in four years.


However, Whitley Stimpson has a proud record for maintaining a director-led approach to its clients’ work, and Walton says that will continue.


From left: Owen Kyffin, Laura Herbert, Ben Allman, Janice Duffy, Jonathan Walton, Diane Li, Rebecca Wildman, Adel Pavel, Peter Jeffery, Charles Bennett


While the firm takes on three to four trainees every year, it is actively seeking qualified, proven and talented recruits – and new merger partners. (Walton’s own firm, Hale Partnership, merged with Whitley Stimpson in 2010).


Whitley Stimpson found another very important piece for its growth jigsaw in Baxter Payne & Haigh. The merger brings fresh expertise within the medical and agricultural taxation fields, along with a wealth of knowledge and ability to boost Whitley Stimpson’s full accountancy service offering, which includes in- house corporate finance assistance.


“We look for merger partners with very similar cultures to ourselves, because people represent the most valuable asset in our firm. Also, sharing traditional business values is very important in a merger partner.”


Ensuring staff from the two merging firms establish friendly ‘solutions-led’ relationships, Whitley Stimpson will be staging a sociable quiz night with mixed teams from the three offices.


Details: Jonathan Walton jonathanw@whitleystimpson.co.uk 01494-685616 www.whitleystimpson.co.uk


HR Wallingford creates world-


NEXT MONTH In the July/August issue of The Business Magazine


leading maritime facility view simulators and two tug bridge simulators, built in conjunction with the company’s newly-upgraded facility in Perth, Australia, to improve its international capability.


Work is now underway to create one of the world’s largest maritime test facilities at Howbery Business Park in Wallingford. This follows the completion of HR Wallingford’s £3 million development by Kier Construction.


HR Wallingford’s Fast Flow Facility, called F3, will be housed within the 17,000 sq ft building and is capable of holding up to 1,000,000 litres of water, equivalent to filling 12,500 average-sized baths spanning the length of 4.5 tennis courts. It will have the capacity to generate waves up to a metre high and currents in excess of 1m/s.


The F3 is being created to enhance the company’s scour, sediment and structure modelling in the maritime, coastal and energy sectors, and will feature alongside an expanded manufacturing space to increase product design and fabrication capabilities.


The purpose-built building will also become home to HR Wallingford’s world-class ship simulation centre with four real-time, 360-degree field


The new development includes environmentally-friendly features such as a permeable paving system, which helps to alleviate flooding by allowing groundwater to disperse naturally rather than through a piped drainage system into the river.


HR Wallingford continues to grow having seen its turnover increase in all sectors by 10% year on year for the past three years in addition to 65% of its trade taking place overseas. Staff numbers have also increased to over 300 from less than 250 in the past three years.


An exciting opening of HR Wallingford’s new building is being planned for October and it is anticipated that a special guest will visit Howbery Business Park to open the state-of-the-art facility.


Details: www.howberypark.com www.kier.co.uk


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – JUNE 2014


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