Oxford’s Shaw Gibbs expands into Surrey with Wise & Co acquisition

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Tom Kilkelly

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Shaw Gibbs, the Oxford-based accountancy practice, has acquired Surrey-based chartered accountants and business advisers Wise & Co.

The two firms have a similar client-base of entrepreneurial businesses and private clients and largely use a consistent IT infrastructure. Shaw Gibb’s acquisition of the company expands their market into Farnham, Surrey (Wise & Co’s office) and means their workforce now amounts to 185 people.

Managing Partner of Wise & Co Sharmini Woodings said: “Wise & Co have been on a transformational journey since inception. Starting as a small business with three staff we now proudly employ over 70 with the expertise and dedication to provide our clients with excellent services in accountancy, tax, business advice and strategic planning.

“We were looking for a firm with which we could easily integrate but who also have the intention to allow us to operate within our own market and be supportive of the growth of our practice locally.

“It was important to us to find a firm with a similar culture, operational structure and client-base as well as the drive to provide high quality compliance and advisory services to their clients. Shaw Gibbs are a great fit for us and joining forces with them will also provide us access to a new range of in-house expertise including dedicated VAT advisory, insolvency services and specialist valuation teams to mention but a few.”

Managing partner of Shaw Gibbs Peter O’Connell said: “There is no doubt that we will gain and learn a significant amount from our partnership with Wise as it is clear they have an abundance of skills, experience and market-knowledge.

“Our expansion plans are based on ‘one culture, one approach’ regardless of geographical location with our company values of: Expert, Respectful, Innovative and Collaborative at the heart of all we do.

“One of our main drivers for expansion is the need to invest in our people, empowering them to take on new challenges and excel in their career path. This helps us to retain our employees and provide a consistent and expert team to best serve our clients.

“Wise will benefit from this investment and our plan is to retain and develop their existing team in order to support the growth of their operation in Farnham.

“I am looking forward to welcoming the Wise team to the Shaw Gibbs Group.”

Tom Kilkelly

Tom Kilkelly started working as a freelance journalist for The Business Magazine following his graduation from UCL in 2022. During his studies Tom became very interested in the works of Irish authors including Samuel Beckett and Flann O'Brien (Brian O'Nolan). His current role as a freelance business reporter is his first exposure to the world of business journalism. Working at TBM has given Tom the chance to really get to grips with the goings-on in the business hive that is the South East.