Partner Article

EY’s North East practice shows ‘stellar growth’ amidst strong company-wide results

Professional services firm EY has revealed a strong set of results for the year and its fastest growth globally since 2008, with its North East branch showing particular signs of growth.

Altogether, the firm reported a fee income growth of 8% to £2.010b, up from £1.868b in the previous year. In addition, distributable profits increased by 6% from £412m to £437m.

Like the wider firm, the North East practice of EY performed strongly during FY15.

The branch increased headcount by over 60% in 10 months, reflecting the significant increase in demand for a wider range of services. In November 2014, the firm announced its intention to go from just over 300 to 500 people in two years when it took an additional 11,143 sq ft at its Citygate premises on St James Boulevard. EY reached this target of 500 14 months early in September 2015.

Mark Hatton, North East Senior Partner at EY, explained: “Over recent years we’ve been focused on investing in our core service lines and specialist financial services offering, our infrastructure and our people in the region. This stellar growth in the North East reflects the success of our approach, along with our people’s commitment to giving our clients outstanding service, and the North East’s status as a great place to recruit good people and do business.

“Our core service lines are growing and our Financial Services practice is going from strength to strength, with the highly regulated and continuously evolving sector presenting new challenges for our clients. Our Government & Public Sector (GPS) team, too, is helping local public sector organisations account for new delivery models, as they respond to austerity by reducing costs.

“Investing and developing our people, as well as ensuring we have an inclusive culture, have been vital to our success in recent years, and this continued in FY15. We appointed a number of new directors who, along with the large number of graduate, school leaver and other experienced hires we took on, will help to grow our business in the years to come. We plan to announce more senior hires in the coming weeks.

Mark added: “Our charity, The EY Foundation, has also been hugely impactful, with so many of our people getting involved to support young people in the North East. Through the Smart Futures programme, year 12 students in the North East have been able to access employment skills and paid work experience, and are receiving mentoring from our people throughout year 13 to support them.

“The North East is an important market for EY; as confidence returns we’re seeing increased demand from our entrepreneurial and large corporate clients to help them drive growth and trade in the UK and internationally, while the North East remains a great place for us to recruit young professional services talent. As a firm we’ve got real momentum and over the coming years we’ll continue investing in people and infrastructure to help our clients and communities thrive.”

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