Bevan Buckland: 125 Years of Adaptation, Growth and Welsh Business Commitment
Bevan Buckland: 125 Years of Adaptation, Growth and Welsh Business Commitment
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As Wales’ largest independent accountancy firm, Bevan Buckland has built a reputation not just on technical excellence but on a deep-rooted commitment to the country and region it serves. At the helm is Chief Executive Officer Gus Williams, who also heads the South Wales Chamber of Commerce, a role that gives him a broad perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing Welsh businesses.
Reflecting on Bevan Buckland’s 125-year history, Williams says the key to longevity has been the ability to adapt. “Initially, a lot of the client base was in shipping and coal but as coal was nationalised, that shipping declined here and you can see that the firm moved through different stages,” he explains. “Post-war, there was a large increase in farming clients. Through the 125 years, the reason the firm’s been going so long is that it’s always adapted to changing times, be it economic, social, political or simply changes in the tax rules.”
What has remained constant is technical excellence. “I think it’s always been rooted in Bevan Buckland’s DNA that we are just good accountants, that we know the technical stuff,” says Williams, praising Managing Partner Alison Vickers as “undoubtedly one of the best accountants I’ve ever known.”
For Williams, leading a firm with such history comes with a sense of stewardship. “You always feel a slight custodian responsibility to a business like this. None of us would want to be the ones who saw the end of the firm,” he says. That sense of purpose underpins the partners’ determination to remain independent, resisting the private equity consolidation sweeping through the accountancy sector. “We’re proud of our deep roots, not just within Swansea, within South Wales, but more generally within Wales.”
That local commitment is also about creating jobs. “The thing I’m most proud of, and we’re very committed to, is creating jobs here in Wales and creating high-skilled, well-paid jobs here,” Williams says. “We are keeping those skills within the region and we’re also recruiting and training up the next generation.”
Under his leadership, the firm has grown from around 60 staff to about 150, generating both direct and indirect economic impact. “We’re not owned by an American private equity firm. So, the profits of this business aren’t leaving Wales,” Williams notes. “We want to support other businesses and help them grow and feed into that broader business ecosystem here in Wales.”
The last few years have brought rapid change and Bevan Buckland’s preparation has paid off. Having already started a transition from a traditional partnership to a corporately managed business before the pandemic, the firm was well-placed to adapt to lockdown. “We’d put the IT and the systems in place, whereas a lot of our competitors struggled, we responded very quickly and we had a very strong growth year that year.”
“A key part of it is keeping our staff and employees happy, because if they’re happy, then they will keep our [clients] happy. If we’ve got the best people and the best accountants working for us we will be the best accountants, and if we’re the best accountants then businesses will seek us out.”
For Williams, there’s no magic formula for success, just clarity about what kind of business you are. “We’re in a people business. We fundamentally remain a relationship business,” he says. “The technical accounting stuff is our bread and butter but the key to the success really is the relationship bit. We’ve got to treat [staff] well, reward them fairly, recruit the best people, train them, retain them. If you’re in a people business and you’re looking after your people, then hopefully those people will then look after our clients.”
“Our success over the last few years has actually raised the bar, it’s not a case of just continuing our growth, it’s how do we potentially accelerate that?”
Williams is also candid about the wider economic backdrop. “The key challenge is that there are many challenges,” he says, citing everything from Brexit to COVID to supply chain issues. “The positive I take from that is that we’ve got really resilient businesses out there. The big challenge for all of us is how do we try and collectively push things onto the next level?”
If you want to learn more about Bevan Buckland you can visit bevanbuckland.co.uk or call
01792 410100.
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