Gillespie Macandrew reports record year as it breaks through £10m fee level with profits up 18 per cent

Gillespie Macandrew LLP has announced an increase in profits in its last financial year of over 18 per cent from £2.4 million to £2.86m on the back of an increase in turnover of 6.7 per cent from £9.81m to £10.47m. These figures are incorporated in the firm’s annual report and accounts to year end 29 February 2016.

It marks a record year for the firm breaking through the £10m fee level for the first time, having seen a positive upward trend over the past four years.

During the past financial year the firm has continued to develop client services across its offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth. The strategy of business growth and development has resulted in fee income growth in particular in private client, residential, housebuilder, commercial property and litigation services. The firm has no current borrowing and has increased its cash in the bank to £1.3m.

During the financial year, the firm appointed three new partners – Agnes Mallon, Alan White and Fraser Leslie and the number of staff employed rose from 101 to 112.

Chairman Murray Shaw said: “We have had a strong year building on the work we did in late 2014. Profits are higher than expected through our top-line growth while our costs didn’t grow as quickly as expected.

“This is largely due to longer timescales than anticipated in recruiting the right people to help us develop. We are delighted with our new recruits at all levels. This confirms we are right to take time to get the correct people for us.

“While we expect the coming year to continue to be highly competitive, we are again quietly confident that we will push forward with our overall growth plan. We have improved our cash management further though there is still more we can achieve - all of which stands us in excellent stead for the planned expansion of the business”

Chief executive Chris West added: ”We are delighted with the results which exceeded expectations for the first year of our latest plan. 2016 and 2017 will see us making further investments in partners, staff, training, our offices in Perth and Glasgow in particular and in our processes and systems - all designed to grow the business and support our clients. Partners and staff have worked hard for this past year’s success and to keep this momentum going we must continue to do so, anticipating and meeting client needs consistently well.

“We remain grateful for all our clients’ support and business throughout the year. The competition in our markets is strong and many of the firms are larger than we are at the moment. We are very pleased to be competing effectively with them in all areas of our business.”

Gillespie Macandrew has deep roots in the rural business community, representing around a million acres of rural, development and industrial land across Scotland.