Jack is a recent graduate with a First Class Honours Degree in Accounting & Finance from University of Liverpool and joins colleagues in our Audit and Accounts team. Jacqui is an experienced payroll professional and will be supporting our clients with their requirements. You can read more about them on our team page here.

Murray Patt, founder of Alexander Knight & Co, said:

We are delighted to be growing our team with the addition of two fantastic professionals. Both of our new colleagues have already made a positive impact on our team and our clients and we are looking forward to supporting them both in their careers at Alexander Knight & Co.

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We are delighted to have bolstered our team of accountants in Hale with the arrival of Cameron and Abi.

Cameron Ellams joins the Accounts & Audit team from Beever & Struthers. Abi Thomson enters the accountancy profession from a teaching background.

Alexander Knight & Co was founded in 2012 and is a member of MGI Worldwide, the global accounting association.

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When our entrepreneurial clients acquire a business, we take great care to make sure that the deal makes sense financially, practically and culturally. After all, it’s not for the faint hearted.

Buying a business

In our experience there are usually some common reasons why it makes sense for business owners to make an acquisition.

• Geographical expansion. Rather than creating a new physical infrastructure to sell your services or goods and hiring new staff in a new location, it may be less risky and more profitable to acquire an existing business in your target location.
• ‘Bolting on’ new services, skills or technology. Creating new products and services to add to your business can often be done more efficiently through acquisition than trying to build them in-house. If another company has expertise in an area you want to operate it can make sense to ‘bolt’ them on to your existing business.
• Growth and exit. It could be that you and your boardroom colleagues are on a growth mission for your business and a strategic acquisition can add value to your position. If you have one eye on an exit (i.e. selling your business) you may be able to create more value in your business by growing it with a suitable acquisition.
• Buying a competitor. It may be that you feel that your business and a rival business are in the same marketplace, fishing in the same pond for the same type of business and that you come up against each other all the time in pitches and tenders. By teaming up together you may be able to create a more successful business.
• Getting presented with an opportunity too good to miss is common. Sometimes, you will see an opportunity to radically reduce costs, improve margins and cashflows in a target business. Good professional advisers will present opportunities to you where you might not ordinarily come across them. This strategy is where private equity firms excel.
• Succession planning. Retirement, handing a family firm into new hands or undergoing a management buyout (MBO) are popular routes to acquiring a company.

If you are thinking of acquiring a business you need to make sure that you finance the deal appropriately, structure the deal correctly legally and ensure that a thorough due diligence process takes place. That’s where lawyers and accountants will be able to help you and add tremendous value.

If you are looking to acquire another business call Murray Patt on 0161 980 8788 or email murray@alexanderknightaccountants.co.uk

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Our practice, launched by Murray Patt in 2012, had outgrown its old premises near Manchester Airport and our new location will be a springboard for even further growth.

As well as launching the office, at Westgate House on Hale Road, we are also unveiling our new sponsorship of Hale Railway Station as well as revealing a clutch of new client wins.

Alexander Knight & Co provides tax, audit and management accountancy services for a range of businesses across the region. Our growing client base also includes international companies seeking specialist advice on doing business in the UK. New clients include Gresham Wealth Management and Thomas Storey Fabrications Group.

Murray Patt, founder of Alexander Knight & Co, said:

We are excited to reveal our new office space in Hale village. Our old office, near Manchester Airport, served us well since we launched the practice back in 2012. Since then, we have grown our client base, staff numbers and our services.

We’ve also developed as a business and we see our new home as a physical embodiment of where we are now and where we are heading as a practice.

Our new, professional surroundings are perfectly in tune with our culture and better suited to our clients and staff. Not only is the location convenient and easy to access it’s also a stone’s throw from amenities in Hale village and Altrincham town centre for our staff.

We’ve had a very successful year and we are looking forward to maintaining our growth during 2018 as we seek to expand our team and client base of entrepreneurs across the region.

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Mi-Hiepa Scout has launched the world’s first virtual reality technology aimed at rehabilitating injured footballers and scouting new talent.

Top clubs, physiotherapists and sports scientists have been involved in the development of the product, which is being rolled out this season.

Premier League clubs

Premier League clubs are already looking at the system, created by Mi-Hiepa Scout, and its founders hope that it will also be used to improve current players and scout for players in the future.

The company’s proprietary limb tracking mechanism enables the system to track the movement of a player’s feet and shins independently in 3D space. With no need for handheld controllers to move feet, accuracy and immersion in the virtual reality experience is first class.

Joint venture

The company was created as a joint venture by leading Manchester developers Mi and sports data experts Hiepa and we’ve been appointed as their accountants and will be assisting the company moving forwards.

Adam Dickinson, Production and Development Director of Mi-Hiepa Scout, said:

We’ve been delighted with the reaction by football clubs in the professional game. We’re operating at the elite level of sport and clubs are keen to explore any advantage they can bring to their squad.

For the first time, coaches, managers, scouts and sports directors can produce rapid, standardised, measurable and comparable results from talent pools that may have been previously unmanageable.

Our system helps get players better mentally and physically through individual training drills.

From a talent spotting perspective, it provides an objective, sterile environment, meaning all players have exactly the same conditions and can be compared equally. A youngster could go through our tests in thirty minutes and you would get objective data about their ability and performance. You could test 1,000 players a week as a first point of filter.

One of the problems many clubs are trying to solve is player engagement during rehab after an injury has occurred. This product certainly does that while providing valuable data for players, coaches and club performance analysts.

Strong credentials

Murray Patt, founder of Alexander Knight & Co in Manchester, said:

The professional world of sport is increasingly looking at technology to amplify the recovery time of injured athletes. The management team at Mi-Hiepa Scout has got strong credentials and connections in the world of football and there is no doubt that the growth plans for the business are impressive. We’re delighted to be advising the team.

Gary Black of Manchester law firm Freeman Fisher, who is advising the company, said:

It’s great to see a local company making huge waves in the VR world within the sporting arena. Manchester is already known as being one of the leading cities in sporting success and Mi-Hiepa Scout is making sure that our city is seen as the leading city when it comes to technology in sport.

If you are a startup business in Manchester – and wish to be formed as a joint venture initiative between investors and/or other companies – speak to Murray Patt at Alexander Knight & Co. 

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Mary, who hails from Middlewich in Cheshire, joins us at a time of impressive growth as new clients continue to be referred to our practice. We’ll announce news of more new clients signing up to Alexander Knight & Co soon. 

With the increase in the number of clients we’ve won so far this year it is important to make sure our back office operation is up to strength so we can continue to deliver for our clients.

We’re pleased to welcome Mary Page to the team as assistant accountant. Mary brings with her a great attitude, exceptional skillset and she will be a great asset as we continue to grow our client base of entrepreneurs.

Mary Page, assistant accountant at Alexander Knight & Co, said:

I’m delighted to join Alexander Knight & Co at such an exciting time. I’m looking forward to working in the newly expanded office space and making a positive contribution to our clients and the practice.

Welcome to our team Mary!

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