Related Links
Our ClientsBarry Mather |
“Rickard Keen are a solid foundation to ensure the durability of my business, but are also always looking for ways to move the company forward. That’s an impressive combination.”
For Barry Mather, Rickard Keen LLP delivers exactly what he’s looking for in an accountancy firm: the reassurance of knowing his affairs are in a safe pair of hands combined with a forward-thinking approach to helping his businesses develop and grow.
Barry brings many years’ business experience to the two very different companies he now owns. Stockplace Investments is a Basildon-based commercial property investment and development company while Anglia Retirement Homes, a family business owned with wife Tanya, runs the Old Deanery Retirement Village near Braintree, which is currently developing a specialist unit catering for older people with memory impairment, alongside its more traditional residential accommodation.
Barry first came to Rickard Keen through a recommendation around a decade ago, when he was looking for a replacement for his existing accountant. His business interests were expanding and he wanted a more substantial accountancy firm than the one he was then working with, to reflect the size of his own business.
Rickard Keen made a good impression on him from the start. He says: “What I liked about them was that they were of the ‘old school’ of accountants. What I understood to be the case then, and have come to believe, is that they are also a trusted and respected firm, which is very important to me. I am not looking for the ‘quick fix’ for tax reduction to find that maybe when you can least afford it, the Inland Revenue are knocking on the door.”
Now he meets with managing partners Alan Worsdale and Keith Bell regularly throughout the year to discuss various business and financial issues while Rickard Keen support his business with services including annual accounts, audit and tax compliance and planning.
Barry appreciates not only Rickard Keen’s proactive approach – “They are always looking at new ideas”, he says – but their efficient and comprehensive support. He cites an example from a couple of years ago, when he became the focus of an HM Revenue & Customs tax investigation.
Having been through the process before, Barry was expecting “a nightmare” but with Rickard Keen’s experience and expertise and a “team effort”, the matter was quickly and satisfactorily dealt with.
Looking back on ten years of working with Rickard Keen, Barry sums up: “They are a firm that ticks all the boxes. Rickard Keen are a solid foundation to ensure the durability of my business but are also always looking for ways to move the company forward. That’s an impressive combination.”