In a year full of business milestones, one of the North East's best-regarded professional services firms has reached a landmark birthday.
RMT Accountants & Business Advisors is celebrating the 70th anniversary of its foundation in Newcastle, since when it has remained a constant and successful part of the region’s professional services community.
And after last year becoming part of Sumer, the UK’s fastest-growing accountancy group, through a co-investment agreement, RMT is now firmly focused on continuing to expand its client base and range of services.
RMT traces its roots back to 1954, when Robert Miller and Stanley Tate opened an accountancy practice on Newcastle’s iconic Quayside.
Mike Pott, managing director at RMT Accountants & Business Advisors, says: “The North East has changed out of all recognition over the last 70 years and we’re immensely proud that RMT has remained an integral part of its professional services community ever since.
“Our move to Gosforth Park 20 years ago was a key milestone in RMT’s history, laying the foundations for everything we’ve become today – and we now have a strategic plan in place to move our business on to the next level.”
RMT provides the full range of financial and business advisory services through its specialist teams, and works with companies of all sizes within and outside the North East, as well as internationally.
Its medical and healthcare division is the largest, dedicated specialist team in the UK outside London and acts for well over 1,000 medical professionals, while RMT was also one of the first independent accountancy firms to set up its own IT/technology business, RMT Technology.
Mike Pott continues: “We believe that no other regional practice offers the breadth of services that we have available while also providing the level of personal involvement and collaboration that so often makes the difference to meeting clients’ commercial and personal goals.
“Maintaining this position requires us to be constantly adapting, upgrading and adding to the services we provide, and the last 12 months has seen some major developments in this area.”
Becoming part of Sumer, which now has eleven regional accountancy Hubs with more than 40 offices and over 1,300 colleagues, has made growth by acquisition a key part of its RMT’s commercial strategy – and it has already completed two such transactions, with others potentially in the offing.
The acquisition at the end of last year of Newcastle and Hexham-based McCowie & Co has enabled RMT to grow its presence in the rural and agricultural sector, while more recently, RMT has joined forces with Durham-headquartered Ribchesters Chartered Accountants, which now operates as RMT Ribchesters.
Mike Pott continues: “Becoming part of a nationwide organisation like Sumer, with a clear strategy for growth, is providing us with opportunities to bring in additional expertise to enhance the services we offer to our clients.
“Bringing the McCowie & Co and RMT Ribchesters teams on board demonstrates how this can be achieved for the benefit of all parties.
“With the Big Four firms becoming ever more remote and smaller practices experiencing the pressure of an everincreasing regulatory burden, the opportunities for firms like RMT have never been greater.
“Our team and our client base continue to grow significantly and we see no limit to future expansion, with the progress we’ve made over the last year being just the start of our ambitions.”
www.r-m-t.co.uk