90 | Tees Business
WORDS: JOANNE BARRETT
PICTURES: DOUG MOODY
WHERE EVERYTHING
ADDS UP
Looking after the numbers
for clients big and small
Leaders – the Baines Jewitt management team
Don Adams and Jed Lester (back), and Trevor
Cook, Ann Cowley and Mike Bigley (front).
WORDS: JOANNE BARRETT
PICS: DOUG MOODY
W
hen it comes to knowing their
clients, the numbers really add up
at Baines Jewitt.
The Stockton-based chartered
accountancy, tax and business advice firm
is built on a lineage of more than 100 years
and a focus that very much concentrates on
client care.
At its heart is a professional and proactive
approach coupled with pride in a forward-
thinking service that can adapt and shape to
serve the needs of a very varied client base
both close to home right here on Teesside
and further afield.
It numbers among its clients a business
owner who features on the Sunday Times
Rich List of the wealthiest people in the UK
and also acts for a company that advises
the government on personal financial policy.
But big hitter or one-man business – it
is no matter to the team of chartered
accountants, whose mantra is working with
rather than for all of their clients.
“Providing the best business advice
and the right level of service comes from
knowing our clients, knowing their tax
situation and using all that information to
help them,” says director Trevor Cook.
“Being in business can be lonely at times
and sometimes people just want somebody
to bounce ideas off – it might not always be
financial.
“Our clients include businesses of
all shapes and sizes and we have the
experience and knowledge to help them.
Although we have specialisms, we are not
sector-specific. Our clients range from small
one-man businesses and family firms up to
much larger corporate style situations and
household names – but generally speaking,
most are owner-managed businesses.
“A lot of our core business is based in the
UK but we do have overseas entities too.
The majority of our business is conducted
across the North-East but we also have
clients out of the area – wherever they are,
we feel it is important to build a relationship
with them and go and see them face to
face.
“It is easy just being on the end of a
phone but that trust in business comes
with knowing someone. That’s why a more
personal approach is still so important in
business. People do business with people.”
The 40-strong staff, who include
chartered accountants, tax consultants,
payroll specialists and business advisers,
are led by Trevor and his fellow directors
Mike Bigley, Jed Lester, Don Adams and
Anne Cowley.
As a member of the UK200Group, the
UK’s leading association of independent
chartered accountants and law firms,
Baines Jewitt operates to the highest
quality standards. It also means the firm
has approved specialist status across a
number of sectors, including agriculture,
healthcare, property, construction, charities
and education.
Services range from audits, annual
accounts, assurance, book-keeping,
corporate governance and tax services to
financial planning, payroll support, pension
advice and buying or selling a business.
More recently there has been a greater