The year in focus

After last year's spectacular growth this was a year of consolidation. Revenue growth was a relatively modest 8 per cent, but Head of Business Assurance Don Hutchison is happy that his team has the right priority. "We put all our energy into delivering top quality audits. New business will flow from that."

We have been active in specialist sectors. In Retail, Kurt Geiger and Stylo Plc were major wins; in Manufacturing, our Leeds office won Abbey crest. Manchester won major audit work for vacation ownership firm Sunterra, involving cross-border work in Europe and the US.

Our Professional Services sector expertise was rewarded with additional work from a number of top 100 law firms and work on the sale of Countrywide plc.

There have been some interesting opportunities with large international groups. These tend to favour Big Four firms for group reporting, but regional and subsidiary companies are often more open to alternative service providers. Our work for an increasing number of large international groups on their local audit requirements demonstrates that we have the scope and scale to manage complicated international assignments.

London's popularity as a location for raising international capital is also creating opportunities. Our reputation as one of the leading advisers to overseas businesses listing on AIM is paying off. AIM-listed companies are impressed with our advice and they are awarding us their audit work. We are one of the most active auditors for AIM listed companies. Examples include Star Energy in the Natural Resources sector and Next Fifteen and Accsys Technologies in the TMT sector.

Listings also bring novel responsibilities, especially when foreign businesses are used to different reporting standards. Our ability to work with different management cultures from China to Kazakhstan, from the US to South Africa is a particular strength.

The Audit Inspection Unit's (AIU) detailed investigation into the UK's leading accountancy practices this year found no material differences between our audit capability and that of our competitors. We also gained a seal of approval from the US regulator. In its first full report into a UK firm the PCAOB identified no quality control issues at BDO Stoy Hayward.

Looking ahead

"We want to increase our share of FTSE 350 audit clients" says Don, "but we know it won't happen overnight. For now, the strategy is to build up relationships with these companies, but remain focused on our heartland of largermid-corporates. We've got strong working relationships with a lot of finance directors and non-executive directors. In the long run that will help us."