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In 1969 two young Chartered Accountants who just happened to go under the names Burton (Stuart) and Sweet (David) decided it would be a great idea to set up in business together based from 77 Whiteladies Road, Clifton, Bristol.
For several years they had worked together in Ricketts Cooper, a business that can trace its roots back well over 100 years. As this partnership broke up following the ‘retirement’ of Mr. Harry Cooper so Burton Sweet was formed, opening its doors for business in July 1969.
Soon Stuart was opening up offices in Thornbury and the business was moving forward built on the core belief of caring for the clients as well as for their finances.
Terry Wicks joined in 1973 bringing greater corporate expertise to the practice. For the rest of the decade the practice grew by reputation and contacts – no major marketing programme, simply a focus on the team understanding their clients needs and circumstances and ensuring that we were a ‘partnership that really works for you’
The 1980’s saw considerable changes. Neil Kingston and Lloyd Pietersen became partners with a clear focus on expanding corporate services and Terry moved to his real forte – capital taxation and trusts/executorship work.
Although Lloyd subsequently resigned to go back into full time study he left a far stronger structure for David Biddel and Geoff Cole who joined the partnership for the start of the ‘90’s.
Growth accelerated considerably with the opening of the office in Shepton Mallet in 1991 following the move to purpose built offices in Thornbury the year before. A strategic alliance with Tomlinson Harris Chartered Accountants in Dursley in 1998 was followed by acquisition of that business and the opening of two more offices as we became one of the largest independent providers of financial and business advice in the region. 2005 saw the opening of full time offices in Weston-super-Mare to further strengthen our regional presence. The range of services has grown to match the business. As well as the core services of accountancy, taxation & audit we were now able to offer strategic planning, business development support, corporate finance, management accounting and IT systems support together with a range of outsourcing services.
David and then Stuart retired in 1996 and 1999 respectively with Hilton Holding and Des King taking over the vacated partner roles and challenges for the new millennium. Tracey Williams became a partner, initially to introduce business development support services for clients. This soon focused on Corporate Finance work and the set up of a new associated company alongside the partnership.
Lloyd rejoined us to revitalise the Charity division that complements our other specialist departments of Agriculture & Corporate Finance before moving back into education – this time as a teacher rather than student. Hilton moved on in November 2003 to work for himself.
Space in Weston was doubled in 2007 with a tax team joining the business services section.
We acquired Bellwoods Chartered Accountants, on 1st April 2008 to open our seventh office. Based in Gloucester, John Bellwood had established a successful business with a quality team and client base.
January 2009 saw further expansion of the Charity specialist section. Tracey stepped down as a partner of the practice and took the Corporate Finance company to become fully independent from the partnership.
Our own business plan to expand the service range whilst maintaining the expertise, commitment and value of the services offered is ongoing. We continue to seek to build the relationship based business that Stuart and David started 40 years ago.
David Biddel and Terry Wicks both retired as Partners on 31st March 2009.
And Harry Cooper ? - Sadly he passed away on 4th April 2009 aged 98. He was still intermittently working and coming into the office until the last few months of his life and remains a positive figure to all those who were fortunate enough to have met and worked with him. A new associated Corporate Recovery business (Burton Sweet Corporate Recovery) was set up with Graham Down, a well respected Insolvency Practitioner, in April 2009.
Links with Graham and his family go back nearly to the outset of Burton Sweet, first with assistance to his father’s business in South Wells and latterly when his brother Tony worked with us in Thornbury. The new business trades from locations in Bristol, Shrewsbury and Bournemouth.
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