Thames Valley accountancy firm Ross Brooke joined our UK Group in April 2021, rebranding to UHY Ross Brooke and bringing four new offices and a team of around 100 professionals under the UHY umbrella. As a full-service accountancy firm offering audit, accounting, tax and business advice services, the firm’s clients range from private individuals, charities and not-for-profit organisations to family owner-managed businesses, corporate groups and large multinational organisations.

UHY Ross Brooke has a rich history in the Thames Valley, with roots tracing back to 1988 when founder Michael Brooke acquired a small practice in Newbury. He went on to merge with long-established local firm, Ross Smith, in 1994, forming Ross Brooke. Over the years, a number of strategic acquisitions and expansions shaped Ross Brooke into a prominent player across the Thames Valley, with offices in Newbury, Swindon, Hungerford and Abingdon. 
 

Emily Ness, who jointly leads the firm in collaboration with fellow managing partner Caroline Webster, explains they were looking for a collaborative network where there would be mutual support and referrals, and one where there was a strong international presence. “UHY seemed to tick the boxes” she says, “and the meetings we had prior to joining gave us confidence that this would be the case. We also wanted to join a network that we felt would strengthen our firm’s presence both locally and nationally, and the UHY name was one that was well known and respected by us. We felt that UHY would be a good fit with our existing structure and values, and it was good to see that all firms in the network appeared to work together to portray the same image.”

Commenting on joining UHY, founder Michael Brooke said “It’s exciting for our firm and our team to be entering the next stage of growth by becoming UHY Ross Brooke. We have a loyal, hardworking and committed team, with more joining each month, whose ambitions we want to meet in the future. Being part of a bigger group with greater resources and reach is fundamental to our plans. That made joining UHY Hacker Young a simple decision.”

Another tangible benefit has come from the close support of the national marketing & business development team, who work with UHY member firms to support on pitching opportunities and continually drive the profile of UHY across the UK and in our key markets.
Reflecting on UHY Ross Brooke’s journey since joining UHY, Emily Ness said: “The network is really friendly and supportive. Since joining in 2021, we have been able to tender for audits that we would potentially not have been invited to do before and we have also won more of those tenders. Being able to refer work to UHY International is a great advantage and we have already been able to do this on numerous occasions. The shared use of resources within the UK is also really useful. We have been provided with valuable technical documentation and pro-formas together with ad-hoc technical help.

The marketing & BD team also have been really supportive of us, assisting us with tender documents and guiding us where needed. This has been invaluable and the presentation of all the documents has been of a really good standard. We have won a number of bigger clients since joining UHY and I really don’t think we’d win some without the support we receive from the marketing team.”