Forty minutes west
Accountants for Liverpool businesses
Baltic Triangle, Knowledge Quarter, the waterfront
The office isn't in Liverpool, and we don't pretend otherwise.
We're a Chester-based firm, and the drive across is well within a workable catchment. We've had Liverpool clients on the books for years. The work doesn't depend on us being round the corner — most of it never has.
How the city has changed commercially
Liverpool's commercial shape has shifted in the time we've been working in it. The dock-related work is still significant but the centre of gravity has moved east and south. The Baltic Triangle is where most of the tech and creative businesses now sit. The Knowledge Quarter holds the life-sciences and university-spinout cluster, and continues to attract serious investment. Professional services remain concentrated in the Royal Liver Building belt and along Castle Street.
The result, for us, is a Liverpool client base that looks fairly different to the one we had ten years ago — and very different to the stereotype.
Where our Liverpool work tends to come from
- Tech firms in the Baltic Triangle, often at the point of growing out of a sole-trader accountant. SEIS, R&D, founder remuneration and growth-stage finance all come up regularly. The Opus Counsel service is the right fit for a lot of these.
- Hospitality operators across the city centre, the waterfront and out towards Aigburth and Lark Lane. We see a fair number of Cheshire-style multi-site operators who have one or two Liverpool venues in the mix.
- Medical practices, particularly the cluster around Aintree and the Knowledge Quarter. NHS-pension complications and partnership accounting are the usual technical work here.
- Construction firms with CIS work spread across Merseyside and into the Wirral. Many of these are working housing developments that loop back into the wider north-west market we already cover.
- Owner-managed businesses with cross-border trade. Historically Ireland-facing, increasingly Europe-facing post-Brexit. VAT and customs work has become a noticeably bigger share of what we do for these clients.
What we are and aren't
We're not going to pretend to be a local Liverpool firm. We aren't. We're a Cheshire firm that has Liverpool clients and visits when needed.
For most of those clients that's the right arrangement. The work doesn't depend on geography. The rates are noticeably lower than the comparable Liverpool city-centre firms once you account for what's actually being delivered. And the technical work holds up — ICAEW chartered, mandatory CPD, PI cover at the level larger clients expect.
If you'd rather a Liverpool-based firm, we'll happily point you to one. We've sent work to several over the years and have no problem doing it again.
Practical details
Bretton HouseBell Meadow Business Park
Pulford
Chester CH4 9EP
Phone:01244 44 55 99 · Email:[email protected]