West Country accountants and financial planners Old Mill have moved up five places in Accountancy Age’s Top 50+50, reflecting the fact that they had another highly successful year.

The Top 50+50 is published each year by leading industry publication Accountancy Age. It is based on fee income and is seen as one of the definitive lists of the UK’s leading accountancy firms.

Old Mill, which looks after more than 5,000 private and business clients from its offices in Exeter, Melksham, Wells and Yeovil increased fee income by 9 per cent in just a year, taking its total fee income to £18.11m.

Managing Director Ian Carlson said Old Mill is always striving to offer the best service to its clients and the new ranking in the 50+50 is independent validation that the business is on the right tracks.

“Our business model is actually quite a simple one. We recruit great people, then train and support them and provide them with the tools and technology needed to give our clients outstanding service. If we do this really well, then as a business we can grow – more people will want to work here and more clients will want to be looked after by us.

Our ability to offer our clients a truly joined-up service really helps us here – they love the fact that they can receive Accountancy, Financial Planning and Tax Planning advice all under one roof, as well as support in other specialist areas such as Payroll, Pensions and VAT. We have made significant investments recently to help us with this, particularly in respect of our IT infrastructure in areas such as client portals and cloud accounting.

This year has also been the first full year for our new food and drink team, which has exceeded expectations in terms of the number of new clients they have brought in, proving that there is a real appetite for a specialist food and drink business adviser in the region.

We have also invested in our recruitment processes, including launching a new dedicated careers website www.oldmillcareers.com At Old Mill, our staff have a real passion about what they do. They care about the business because we care about them. By offering great career opportunities to staff we can ensure that we attract the best people and retain them, which keeps our clients happy.”

Carlson says that while Old Mill will look to continue to grow, and will consider acquiring other businesses when it makes sense, they don’t want to grow for growth’s sake.

“Old Mill’s growth has been largely organic, and most new business comes from client recommendations. While bigger doesn’t always equal better, growth is a product of success, and the fact that we have been placed 35 in the UK showcases that we are a successful, growing firm of substance.”

Moving up the Accountancy Age league table is a great achievement, as it reflects all the hard work put in by everyone at Old Mill in developing our people and servicing our clients. It is a real team effort.”