The rise of Azets over the last six years has been nothing short of extraordinary.
Amid a volatile economic environment, the audit, tax and business advisory firm has grown ten-fold and, with David Booth at the helm, there’s no plans to slow down.
“We're just going through the budget process at the moment but, as a business, we're looking to double in size over the next five years.
“We have got a plan for every service line that we're looking to implement. We’re looking to bring in some new service lines in Aberdeen because we think there's a market for it.”
Graeme Sheils joined Azets in October last year in as a Regional Chair, having enjoyed a lengthy career within the big four.
“I’ve been really, really impressed by what the guys have achieved in such a short space of time.
“One thing that's really exciting is the youth and the energy throughout the team. There is a genuine belief that Azets is the natural home for growing and ambitious businesses and their owners.
“We’re invested in Aberdeen and see great potential in the city, we’ve got first class office facilities and we're continuing to build specialist headcount.
“As an old guy, having been a partner at Deloitte for over 21 years, and been around a lot of different businesses, the dynamism and energy here is special and really refreshing.
Graeme Sheils
“We've got a lot of autonomy to build on the team’s successes to date, to do what's right for Azets in the North-east and to provide the services and support we think are important to local businesses and their owners.”
The duo have big plans for the area.
“This year, we're investing significantly again in more placement students from RGU, interns from the University of Aberdeen, school leavers and graduates as we look to grow the next generation of accounting, audit and tax talent in the region,” said David.
“It's 18 in total, and that intake has doubled every single year for five years.
“We’re committed to investing locally, creating jobs, and being part of the community and as long as we keep growing, which I think we will, those opportunities are going to continue to be there.”
A local, tailored approach
It’s not only by investing in young talent has Azets been able to grow at an rapid rate.
David and Graeme pride themselves on providing a tailored service to clients, offering more flexibility than its larger competitors in the big four.
“The key to success continues to be David and the team. Apart from being good at what they do, the approach is nimble and flexible, providing that tailored local service,” according to Graeme.
“Some people just want a ‘no frills’ compliance services, with their audit and tax filings completed with minimum fuss and on time. However, we also bring more to the table.
“We can bring some different insight through our tax, systems and controls and risk expertise, as well digital and analytics offerings.”
Despite the incredible success David has helped bring to the company, neither he nor Graeme is blind to the challenges awaiting them in the not-too-distant future.
The latter has been in Aberdeen since 1994 and is well aware of the opportunities and challenges on the road ahead.
While Aberdeen has a massive opportunity to secure its position in the energy sector through energy transition, this comes with a warning over the current taxation regime, both corporate and personal, which Graeme feel risks both confidence over future investment and a potential talent drain away from the region.
“We have incredible skills and talent here but our political leadership needs to help us by facilitating an environment that provides confidence to invest for longer term economic growth and create the career opportunities that will come with that.
“The Energy Profits Levy is a handbrake on investment and the Scottish personal tax rate differential is also unhelpful. The energy sector needs to be seen as more attractive to build a career.
“At the moment I think there is hesitation with people concerned about the longer-term vision.
“This, combined with personal tax rate differentials, is contributing to younger and more experienced professionals looking elsewhere for opportunities."
Building a conveyer belt of talent
David has spent the majority of his life in the North-east. He’s already had a lasting impact on Azets in the city but is under no illusions as to how challenging things are getting.
“When you've got an already tight market for talent, if you add the points in Graeme mentioned, it's just going to get harder for us to attract talent and retain talent, and that's what we're going to need to be able to grow.
“We've been relying on the universities. We have recruited at the placement level and graduate level heavily with the aim of trying to build a real conveyor belt of talent. That is a challenge already, never mind looking forward 18 or 24 months.
“The numbers on the accounting and finance courses at the local universities have reduced over the past few years.
“They’ve been as low as they’ve ever been and that’s concerning.
“I’m not sure what’s driving it, but that’s coming through in terms of volume of graduate applicants and placement applicants.
David Booth.
“However, we have been an attractive option for students so have managed to recruit some real talent from a limited pool.”
Graeme added: “The reality is that it's always been hard to get people to come to Aberdeen if they haven't had any previous connection to the city, and the clouds around the energy sector are adding to that challenge.
“But I think the biggest challenge we've got is that people born and bred in Aberdeen and the North-east now deciding to go elsewhere to gain experience because they don't see opportunities locally.
“My worry is they don’t return.”
The trials and tribulations of current and future policy decisions may prove to make things more difficult for Azets, but a successful UK-wide rebranding of the company in 2020 has played a massive role in developing the company into a major player nationally and locally.
“The journey in the first couple of years was pretty hard, it was a chore to convince staff to join you and sell them the vision, it was the same with clients,” said David.
“But we’ve taken in the right people at the right time. CV19 actually worked in our favour, a lot of clients started looking at costs and we capitalised on that.
“Certain firms made the decision to give staff pay-cuts and we put pay up to keep our people. A lot of decisions at the right time helped accelerate our growth.
“The rebranding and the office move, which were sorted at a similar time, were big parts of the growth journey.
“Taking potential clients and hires into this office and showing them round was a big selling point.”
With an impressive, modern office space on Albyn Place, it’s easy to see the attraction.
A young workforce that’s invested in Aberdeen, and a young company that’s investing in Aberdeen, has Azets setup for a bright future, despite what challenges may come their way.
David said: “I do think we've got an exceptionally strong team and we're looking to build on that over the next few years with key strategic hires.”