Yorkshire one of the fastest growing markets in the last 12 months with 10% growth in headcount year-on-year
Ernst & Young LLP today announced turnover growth of 8% to £1.465 billion for the year ended 30 June 2011 up from £1.356 billion in the previous year.
The Yorkshire practice, including offices in Leeds and Hull, has seen a 10 % year-on-year growth in headcount with three new partners appointed in the region in the last year across its audit and assurance service lines. Alistair Denton, Christabel Cowling and Suzanne Robinson are all newly appointed partners to the Leeds office.
The firm has also invested in a number of new recruits with significant growth across its Financial Services, Tax, Transactions and Advisory practices in the past 12 months.
David Buckley, senior partner at Ernst & Young in Yorkshire commented: “I’m pleased to announce strong results for the firm nationwide and in particular, Yorkshire has been one of the fastest growing markets in the country. We’ve invested significantly in our people to reflect this including specialist healthcare, pensions and valuations senior recruits with further growth plans across all service lines.”
“This is very positive news for the region given the backdrop of the current economic climate. We’re incredibly busy in the region acting on some of the largest deals out of Yorkshire including advising on the £5.8b buyside deal supporting EDFs electricity distribution assets and also acting on two of this year’s major retail administrations TJ Hughes and Focus DIY.”
The UK picture
Steve Varley, UK managing partner at Ernst & Young commented: “I am very pleased to report turnover growth of 8%. We made the decision several years ago to increase significantly our investment in our business and once again this year’s growth demonstrates that taking a longer term view pays off. Critical to this growth has been the collaboration across our global organisation as we help our clients expand internationally, especially those seeking to export into high growth markets in the Middle East, India, Russia, China and Brazil. This also reflects our position as the most global business in our industry. Indeed over 10% of our UK partners are currently working in international roles.
“Our focus on entrepreneurs, along with the world leading Entrepreneur Of The Year Programme, continues to go from strength to strength and is even more critical during these challenging times for UK plc. This year the entrepreneurs in our programme are responsible for combined annual revenue of £7bn and have achieved 20% employment growth. A number of them are growing their businesses cross-border through exports and overseas investment.
“We also continued to lead our industry in diversity, nearly 30% of my Leadership Team are women and we have the highest percentage of female partners compared to our competitors. We are committed to doing more in this area as we believe that increasing diversity and creating an even more inclusive culture drives better decision making. We want Ernst & Young to be a place where all our people are able to succeed in their careers and reach their potential.
“Our commitment to driving successful growth and at the same time making the difference to our clients, the economy and society continues.”
Business performance
Ernst & Young’s Assurance business grew by 10% to £444 million driven by companies being attracted by our ability to deliver a quality audit globally and excellent performances across our core audit business and Fraud Investigative & Dispute Services.
Our Tax practice grew by 3% to £372 million, with a strong performance from the specialist tax advisory part of the practice, including Transaction Tax Services and International Tax Services.
The Transaction Advisory Services business fell by 2% to £279 million reflecting a difficult transaction market. The Advisory business achieved strong growth up 20% to £370 million driven by client demand for our services across all sectors.
Our work in financial services contributed strongly to the firm’s success this year, achieving double digit growth. Our investment in strategic solutions, such as, G20, Solvency II, IFRS, Claims Management, Risk Convergence, restructuring, FATCA is clearly paying off, and in many areas, we are now the market leading provider of these solutions.
Average profit per partner rose slightly in line with our expectations as we continue to invest in our people and our business.
Our strong performance in the UK was mirrored by our combined Global revenues up 8% to US$22.9 billion and growing our global headcount to 152,000, an increase of nearly 11,000 people.
Our people
Investment in developing and engaging all of our people so that we attract and retain quality people that make a difference is crucial to our business. We have hired nearly 3,500 people across the UK in the last year, and we have launched a new school leaver programme that provides an alternative to university. Students will be able to join the firm straight after A-Levels earning a competitive salary while also studying for a professional qualification. Ernst & Young was recognised in the 2011 Stonewall Workplace Equality index for the third year in a row and was also named as one of the UK’s leading employers in the Great Place to Work 2011 Best Workplaces listing.
Our partnership
During the year, 42 new partners were admitted to the firm, taking the total number of partners in the UK to 527. In the last year, direct entry partners have come from competitors and industry as part of the firm's market leadership strategy. The areas of the business that have benefited the most from investment in partners include Advisory Services, Tax and Financial Services.
Export Excellence
Varley continued: “We are focusing on how we can help our clients increase their exports to new markets as this supports national efforts to drive export excellence and increased inward investment. Only 5% of UK exports currently go to BRIC countries. We are predicting that the total value of goods and services will increase 8.5% a year over the next ten years. The increase to BRIC countries will be 11.7%.
“Government has an important role to play in facilitating the reorientation of exports towards these growth and emerging markets, including breaking down barriers for companies that want to export to these markets. We are seeking to play our part.”
Future growth
Varley concluded: “Among our competitors, we are the only firm that has a consistent, time-tested, global strategy focused on high growth companies. Now more than ever, our focus on maintaining high quality in all our services remains a key priority. We are committed to making a difference to the overall UK economy.”