NEWS

Accountancy firm expands to the coast

Norwich firm of business advisers and chartered accountants has spread its wings with the launch of an office on the east coast.

Banham Graham has opened the office in Gorleston as part of an expansion strategy that it says could involve further deals.

Accountant Sue Rolfe has joined the firm as a partner to head up the new office, which will initially have six staff.

She has taken her current portfolio of more than 200 clients, which are mainly small and medium-size businesses, with her to Banham Graham.

“We have recognised for some time that the next logical step in providing a wider range of services to our clients is to look to open offices elsewhere in Norfolk,” said managing partner Murray Graham.

“We are looking for other opportunities, although the fit will have to be right. Further expansion is the obvious next step for us but how we do it is important.

“As with Sue, we are looking for existing businesses that are established and well known but that would also benefit from the wider range of services that Banham Graham can offer.

“We are not after expansion at any cost; it has been a case of looking for a partner who shares our values of entrepreneurship, strategic thinking and a personal touch, and in Sue we have found the ideal person.”

Ms Rolfe remained in Norfolk after coming to the county in the early 1980s to study at the University of East Anglia.

In the early 1990s she was tax supervisor at Stoy Hayward, working alongside current Banham Graham partners Murray Graham, James Banham and David Buck.

After a career break, she set up as a sole practitioner in Yarmouth 11 years ago, and created the Simpson & Rolfe partnership in 2002.

“I believe that there is a need for a really strategic, pro-active business adviser in the town, and my intimate knowledge of Yarmouth's business scene, coupled with Banham Graham's depth of skills, is an ideal combination,” she said.

The Gorleston office, which opened on Monday, is on Longs Estate, England's Lane.