Partner Article

Interview: Darren Fell, managing director at Hove-based Crunch Accounting

Hove-based Crunch Accounting, the UK’s fastest growing accountancy firm, launched the Crunch Academy in May of this year, offering the first in-house, AAT-approved accountancy training service of its kind in the South of England. Bdaily was given the opportunity to interview entrepreneur and managing director Darren Fell, to find out a little more about Crunch’s unorthodox yet innovative take on the accounting industry.

As the UK’s fastest growing accountancy firm, to what do you owe your impressive growth rate?

Darren: “After having some bad personal experiences with traditional accountants, I could see quite clearly a gap in the market - a need for a service that allows the client full control of their own accounts and, therefore, control over the future of their business.

“With ex-HMRC tax-brain Steve Crouch as a partner, the whole business has been set up around how I’d like an accountancy service, based largely on my own experiences and a different way of thinking.

We’ve built our own in-house technology to provide absolute ease of use and every system for the backoffice, automating practically everything and freeing up time for our account managers and accountants to provide top notch service to help our clients out, if needed. Our goal is to provide amazing service with a top software system, ultimately keeping financial control in the hands of our clients, while ensuring a safety net and team of experts to guide along the way.“

Has Crunch carried any recent recruitment drives?

“Crunch has doubled in size over the past year and we now have over 150 employees. We have our own recruitment team and continually recruit accountants, account managers and other staff with a capability to recruit faster if we’ve won a big project. Recently we’ve increased the development team considerably to prepare for exciting projects to be rolled out in the new year.

“We are also one of only two accountancy firms in the UK that have our own onsite, AAT accredited training facility – the Crunch Academy - and we are currently training our apprentice accountants with the view that they will go onto be fully qualified members of the team.”

What makes Crunch unique?

“Having celebrated our fifth birthday earlier in the year, we are delighted that Crunch is still unique, as the only company combining in-house accountancy software and one-to-one accountancy practice. This combination allows an absolute focus on using technology and trained experts to create an efficient system and great customer service at a low price. We’re constantly re-evaluating our service and striving to be ever better and stronger.”

How would you say the accountancy sector has changed since 2009? And how is Crunch adapting to these changes?

“When we first launched there was a lot of controversy within the accountancy sector. We met a lot of resistance to our plan for a non-traditional, online approach and we had a lot of negative attention as a result. Over the past five years we have seen this attitude change substantially. There are now many more online accountancy firms, some of which also focus on small businesses, contractors and sole traders, and this has readjusted some of the expectations of what an accountancy firm should be.

“Also, by coming in at a third of what was the standard Limited Company accounts cost, a new pricing point has been formed and has allowed the traditional accountants to move up to the bigger SMEs, medium sized firms and complex tax jobs. We will continue to innovate and are excited to be part of this evolving market place.”

What are your aspirations for 2015?

“We have some very exciting developments in the pipeline for 2015 but as of yet, are not in a position to discuss these. I can say that we expect to continue hopping up the annual list of the UK’s Top 100 accountancy firms as we continue to accelerate our growth exponentially in the new year.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .