Garbutt & Elliott were one of the first accountancy firms in the UK to achieve Customer first Accreditation in June 2005. The accreditation process involved an intensive interview and scrutiny process to study our client relationships, market awareness and how we train and motivate our staff

Since gaining the ‘Customer First’ accreditation we have been continually looking at ways to develop and improve our service to clients, we are therefore always interested to hear your comments on how you believe we can improve our service to you. Please contact Chairman, David Dickson, with your comments on his direct email at ddickson@garbutt-elliott.co.uk.

Don’t take our word for it…below are some testimonials from our clients.

Avertis Group is one of the UK’s leading risk solutions organisations. Avertis offers a wide range of solutions to reduce risk and recover assets for public bodies, businesses and individuals.

Avertis Risk Solutions have an established reputation amongst leading UK and global insurance companies, financial institutions, public sector organisations and high profile legal firms and undertake projects in the UK and internationally, providing highly professional, innovative and effective solutions for protecting corporate reputations and minimising their exposure to risk.

Neil Guilder, Partner explains, "We were previously with a firm outside the Yorkshire region and Garbutt & Elliott’s services appealed to us as they were a local firm, who could provide us with the support and advice we required during a rapid growth phase. They have assisted us greatly by providing tax advice on group structures, re-structuring the organisation and share options schemes. Their payroll department provide us with a very efficient payroll service, producing security payslips and processing wages payments by BACS on our behalf."

Neil Guilder
Avertis Group
www.avertis-group.com

"We were very impressed by the Garbutt & Elliott Corporate Finance Team's excellent and lucid presentation of the Information Memorandum."

Howard Reynolds
Tillys Interiors

Alfred Hymas Ltd is the largest family-owned bulk haulier in North Yorkshire.  Established in Burton Leonard, near Harrogate nearly 100 years ago, the Company has built-up and maintained a high reputation within the haulage industry.

Today, Alfred Hymas has a fleet of 66, and employs 95 members of staff, predominantly serving the aggregate and agricultural industries.  Based on current statistics, Alfred Hymas Ltd transports more than 6000 tonnes per day.  That’s around 1,750,000 tonnes per year!

Maurice Hymas, recollects, "We were previously with a middle tier national firm, however Garbutt & Elliott’s personal approach, through their partner led service appealed to us.  Garbutt & Elliott’s wealth of experience advising families in business meant they could meet both our business and personal financial requirements.  Garbutt & Elliott have a diversity of specialists in areas such as tax and trust and estate planning and we have been able to draw on these specialisms as and when required."

Maurice Hymas
Alfred Hymas
www.alfredhymas.co.uk

Long and Sons (Haulage) Ltd is a true family business formed in the 1920's by Joe Long, the grandfather of the present partners. The company remains family controlled and is now in its fourth generation. The company has been BS EN ISO 9002 registered since 1996. The main depot and head office is based at an 8 acre site in Leeds.

April 2000 saw the opening of an additional depot in Hull. The Company is fast growing and in general regarded as one of the area’s leading hauliers with a fleet of 90 rigid and articulated vehicles. The company understand the need for continuous improvement in a fast changing business environment.

Andrew Long, Partner, recounts, "We had been with our family accountant for many years and it became clear that the now fast growing company required additional services and expertise, we turned to Garbutt & Elliott after a recommendation from our bank. Garbutt & Elliott specialise in advising family businesses and offered a number of additional services including business, tax and financial advice to help take our business forward and realise our future plans."

Andrew Long
Long and Sons (Haulage) Ltd
www.longsofleeds.co.uk

McMillan (York) Limited founded over 10 years ago, are the owners of Nexus bar/club and bpm bar/club in York. Nexus and bpm have both undergone major refurbishment programmes and re-launch in recent years. The bars are managed by local people with an overall aim to give ordinary people an extraordinary night out.

McMillan (York) are currently looking at ways to further expand the business, including the acquisition of further bars to add to their portfolio.

Russell Brown, Partner, said, "‘We moved from a smaller firm of accountants to Garbutt & Elliott as we felt that with their tax planning and business advice services they could help us to achieve our long-term business objectives to grow the firm. Garbutt & Elliott have helped us to vastly improve our internal financial management and reporting, implement an Enterprise Management Incentive scheme and assisted us in key appointments of staff."

Russell Brown
McMillan (York) Limited
www.nexusyork.co.uk
www.bpmyork.co.uk

"We would like to put on record our thanks to Garbutt and Elliott and most particularly for the help in achieving our goals within, what we admit was, a very tight timetable. I suppose you could say, as the months turned into weeks, together we stuck to our guns, pulled out all of the stops and focussed on achieving our objectives.

I have to say, we have come across a lot of firms of accountants in our roles as consultants, but we have all been very impressed with Garbutt & Elliott from the day we first met. That impression has only been enhanced since you have been advising us, and we are very grateful for your help.

It goes without saying, we will be spreading the word as we foray through industry in Yorkshire."

Geoff Windas
Meltham Mills Limited
www.melthammills.co.uk

"We very much appreciate the time and trouble you have taken over this matter, and our various other "causes" recently."

Chris Weston

Back in 1998, Jez Willard and his wife Hiromi realised a dream as they launched The Japanese Shop in Harrogate, followed by a second shop in York and the launch of the online store www.thejapaneseshop.co.uk.

Towards the end of 2004, Jez Willard had reached the point that fills all true entrepreneurs with both anxiety and anticipation. His business, The Japanese Shop, was a resounding success and looked set on a course of incredible growth.

Jez recalls,“Our original accountants were a great support, but I could see, and to be fair, so could they, that we needed more specialised assistance. They were a small firm, and we were in danger of putting their existing resources under too great a strain. Garbutt & Elliott are very well known locally, and, once we had overcome our initial fear of thinking, quite wrongly as it turns out, that they were only for ‘the big boys’, their broad range of experience and specialist knowledge was just what we were seeking.

What we have found with Garbutt & Elliott is that we have experts in so many different fields on hand – no one person now deals with every aspect of our business, and this gives us an excellent sounding board, when you consider that The Japanese Shop is still basically run by only two people.

With the addition of the Chester shop in December 2004, the development of sales direct to trade outlets, and the growth of the existing shops and online store, business for The Japanese Shop has improved by over 250% since 2004. The ambition to open 30 shops in the UK over the next ten years begins to look an achievable goal."

Jez Willard
The Japanese Shop
www.thejapaneseshop.co.uk

"You guys saved the day for us. I am deeply appreciative of your efforts."

George Hess
Wesco Aircraft (Europe) Limited
www.wescoaircraft.co.uk

“I was very pleased with how we worked together and would have no hesitation is using you again in the future.”

“We were very pleased in the way that you tackled the assignment, the overall level of understanding of our business information and your ability to provide clear & concise documentation”

“Thank you to you and your team for providing the required information and for your commitment to getting this done on time. I know that you all worked very hard to complete this task.”