Happy mediums speak of delight at making shortlist

Tuesday 28th December 2010, 2:30PM GMT.

Advocate Louise Hall. MAKING the best medium business shortlist for this year’s Guernsey Awards for Achievement is the icing on the cake of a highly successful year for three firms.

Law firm AO Hall, retail bank Skipton International, and accountancy, tax and business advisory firm Grant Thornton, have each spoken of their delight at making it through the judging process in the BWCI-sponsored category.

For AO Hall, a relative newcomer to the Guernsey legal market having been established five years ago, the application process allowed the firm to stand back and consider those aspects of the business it was most proud of, according to founding partner Louise Hall (pictured).

Skipton deputy managing director Jim Coupe said the shortlisting was cause for double celebration.

Grant Thornton managing director Dave Clark said he hoped the nomination would broaden the appeal of the firm even wider.

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1
John

January 6, 2011 at 2:58 pm

This comment is aimed at the Guernsey Press

How can Grant Thornton be considered to be a medium sized business? It is part of a multinational Accountancy and Consultancy practice that has offices in nearly every country in the world.

It is certainly a lot bigger business than the OGH which is , I believe, part of the Red Carnation hotel group. OGH has been classified as a large business>

Skipton is also part of an international financial services group.

The classifications do not make sense.

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2
Sir Percy Blakeney

January 6, 2011 at 4:26 pm

If John is right it makes this award a bit of a farce. How can subsidiaries of major international corporations even be eligible?

I’m not xenophobic – I don’t have a problem with them operating on Guernsey. Surely the whole point of the Guernsey Awards for Achievement is to promote local businesses, not branches of global corporations?

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3
Sandy

January 6, 2011 at 5:12 pm

I think I read in the full version in the paper that the local Grant Thornton office is wholly owned by its local directors following a management buyout or something a couple of years ago. Presumably it remains part of the Grant Thornton network for whatever reason but it appears to be a local, independent operation and not a branch office.

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4
john

January 7, 2011 at 2:19 pm

@ Sandy

My understanding is that Grant Thornton bought out a local accountancy practice a few years ago.

The local website states that they are part of GT International and represented in over 100 countries worldwide.

Grant Thornton International is fifth or sixth in size globally among the accountancy/audit firms.

Hardly a medium sized local firm.

Same goes for Skipton which is the fourth largest building society in the UK.

It is healthy for the Guernsey economy to have Gt on the island providing international auditing and accountancy standards but surely the point of these awards is to recognise truly local businesses?

Maybe there should be a category for local subsidiaries or branches of international companies?

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