Accountancy firm Baker Tilly’s Bristol office has adopted the RSM name, uniting it under a single common brand with RSM audit, tax and consulting firms across the world.
The new logo appeared at its Victoria Road office – where it employs around 110 people – yesterday in line with 730 RSM offices in more than 110 countries.
The full-service office’s expertise spans audit, tax, corporate finance and consulting and is one of RSM’s 35 UK locations.
The move brings the RSM name back to Bristol after a gap of two years following RSM Tenon’s acquisition by Baker Tilly.
The mid-tier firm – the UK’s seventh largest – sees the rebrand as an opportunity to position itself as a global player offering seamless, high-quality services across the world for its regional clients. The Bristol office covers an area stretching from Chippenham to Cornwall.
Bristol office managing partner Kate Reid said: “It’s exciting to play our part in the global launch of the new RSM brand here in Bristol. Although our name has changed, we will stay true to our roots and maintain the core essence of our business and a strong dedication to our local client base.”
RSM UK managing partner Laurence Longe said: “Uniting under a common brand presents a unique opportunity for RSM to truly become the first choice adviser to middle market leaders, globally.
“Clients using an RSM firm will now have much greater confidence that they will receive the same high quality of professional service for their audit, tax and consulting needs wherever they do business in the world.
“By coming together under a common brand, we will be better able to draw on local knowledge and global expertise from across the network and this will help us to help our clients be successful wherever and whenever they expand the international reach of their business.”
The move is the latest in a series of rebrands by accountancy firms partly triggered by a spate of mid-tier market mergers during the recession.
The city previously had an RSM Tenon office but the brand disappeared when Baker Tilly acquired the national firm’s trading operations.
RSM Tenon – at one time a key player in the mid-market – had been formed from the merger of the Tenon Group with RSM Bentley Jennison in December 2009. The firm’s parent company entered administration in August 2013 after it failed to renegotiate its banking covenants. Baker Tilly immediately bought the trading entities to in a pre-pack deal.
RSM Tenon had already wound down its Bristol operation – closing its office in the city more than 18 months previously and replacing it with a much smaller presence in a serviced office in Clifton. Some Bristol staff were relocated to its Swindon or Reading offices while others left the firm.
