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Contact Details for Gardiner Fosh Chartered Accountants and Business AdvisersAddress:31 St John's, Worcester, WR2 5AG
Telephone: 01905 748073
Fax: 01905 420447
Email: advice@gardinerfosh.co.uk

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Welcome to Gardiner Fosh

Gardiner Fosh is a firm of chartered accountants in Worcester. Based in St John’s, a small but thriving village on the west bank of Worcester, Gardiner Fosh provide advice and services to local, and not so local businesses and individuals.

As you would expect Gardiner Fosh provide a full range of accountancy services and taxation services. Experienced business and financial management professionals, we are able to provide solutions to most business problems (and if we can’t we know a man who can). Unlike many other firms, Gardiner Fosh principals and staff have spent considerable time in industry and commerce gaining valuable experience in financial planning, development and management of businesses.

We maintain close links with fellow local professionals who assist in the cradle to grave approach to business support from inception to ultimate tax efficient disposal.

For individual clients we try to keep our services as personal and committed as possible with flexibility in place and timing of meetings as appropriate.

The Gardiner Fosh team is happy to provide appropriate support to bring a common sense approach to any dealings we have with you. To find out more about Gardiner Fosh and how we might help with your business or personal affairs please take a look around the website. If you like what you see please click the “Contact Us” tab and, well, contact us.

About us & our Services

Periodic Accounts
All businesses need to prepare accounts – from the individual tradesman to the more complex limited company. We try to fashion an accounting process which is appropriate to the needs of each business and to the expertise available. Where the client does not have the resource or the expertise we can take on the whole process and this is often appropriate to the smaller client.

The level of detail and frequency of accounts will reflect the nature of each business. A young growing business will benefit from regular management accounts which provide feed back to management on financial performance against business plans. A mature stable business may require less frequent accounts but nonetheless should maintain a cost effective and reliable accounting system.

Timely accounts can spark constructive dialogue with your accountant such that opportunities are not squandered and dangers are averted. The range of business experience in our office means that discussions with clients regularly stray outside the fields of accountancy and taxation. We have considerable experience in the fields of construction, manufacturing, engineering, property development, retailing, and professional services.

Cash Flow, Budgets and Profit Projections
These are serious business tools which can contribute substantially to averting financial problems, securing necessary financial resource, or capitalising on a business opportunity.

We do not regard these tools as simple mathematical exercises and are regularly surprised by the extent to which they illustrate business owners who fully understand their operating processes but have very limited appreciation of the financial processes driven by, or dependent on, those processes.

We deal with the technical aspects of these tools and ensure that information which flows from them is communicated and explained in plain English. This allows business owners to develop plans and strategies for the future that can deliver real benefits.

Audit and Assurance
Independent assurance of the reliability of financial accounts or other operating statements can provide considerable benefit to executive management, stakeholders and many others who seek to minimise commercial and compliance risk.

Assurance can take the form of a statutory audit for limited companies, where it is a requirement of the Companies Act or the shareholders, or for pension schemes, solicitors, estate agents, FSA regulated clients or other regulated entities. A non statutory audit can also have great advantage for non regulated entities; for example small limited companies with good growth prospects which are seeking to rely on substantial borrowings to finance their development.

We firmly believe that audit and assurance can be a value added tool for management and business development.

Personal Taxation and Business Taxation
We strive to offer a personal tax service which gives the client re-assurance that their taxation obligations are properly declared, in a timely fashion, and also that maximum possible notice is given of tax liabilities or opportunity for repayments. We attend regular technical training courses to stay abreast of legislative changes and maintain advanced software to track all aspects of client taxation affairs.

Where personal taxation flows mainly from business activities we treat the taxation as part of the accounting process. This ensures that relevant information is identified and extracted at the time of accounts production thereby maximising the opportunity for any tax advantage and minimising the risk of mis - declaration. We would normally expect to arrange a pre year end meeting with business clients to ensure that any possible benefits are maximised. We do NOT however, let the tax tail wag the dog.

Where clients become involved in more unusual or complex taxation matters we have contact with tax experts whose expertise and experience is provided through our office.

Relatively routine taxation matters can be dealt with on the basis of a fixed fee agreed in advance.

Business Development and Business Disposal
Most business owners have aspirations based on their commercial acumen and expertise. These strengths can soon be weakened as the growing pressures of compliance and accountability take their toll and clear forward vision is blurred by conflicting information on an uncertain current position.

Developing a successful business is not a skill picked up from a text book; nor is it a simple means of combining the right ingredients. It requires the right personalities and expertise to link with ideas and commercial opportunities that demand commitment of resource from financiers, landlords, local authorities et al. We will not always have either the personality or the skill sets to meet the challenges of a particular business but we believe we are more capable than most.

In the last 6 years Gardiner Fosh has seen some £25 million realised by business owners with whom we have been involved for a considerable time. We believe, as do our clients, that our role was significant in both the creation and the realisation of that wealth. These deals were almost entirely in cash and ranged from hundreds of thousands to several million encompassing businesses as diverse as ecommerce software to precision engineering and restaurants to financial futures. The structures varied from straight purchase by UK listed companies and individuals, through to MBO’s and MBI’s. We were closely involved in structuring the businesses, preparing them for sale, negotiating the terms and working with appropriate legal advisers to conclude the deals. An attention to taxation implications throughout also resulted in very low exit tax rates

In addition to the gross value of the share and asset realisations, these business owners benefited from substantial pensions built up mainly in SSAS’s where benefits had been accrued to them and other close family members.

Our role in helping the development of client businesses has generally been in addition to our role as accountant and/or auditor – but not exclusively so. We are happy to work with other finance/accounting professionals and indeed enjoy such opportunities. Any preliminary meetings and discussions are without obligation and completely confidential. We are pleased to provide professional and client contact for any prospective client to seek confirmation of our claimed successes.

Meet the Team

The GardinerFosh team is made up of experienced professionals covering a full spectrum of accounting and business expertise. To find out more about us read the profiles below:

Charlotte
Charlotte joined the practice as Audit Manager in 1999 and has rapidly become a key player in the accounting, financial and taxation affairs of a number of clients. She is a Civil Engineering graduate of Birmingham University and qualified with Ernst & Young in London. Charlotte is a local swimming coach and “mature” competitor, and lives locally with her husband and 3 children who are variously involved in swimming, rugby, football and netball.

Gavin
Gavin trained with a local practice before moving to the Audit Commission with whom he qualified. After a short return to practice as an Audit Manager specialising in agricultural co-operatives he took over as Finance Director at a major agro-chemicals and veterinary pharmaceuticals distributor. After promotion to Group Finance Director he spent 364 days trying to prevent the eventual receivership of SF Limited.

The next 3 years were spent working with senior management preparing PowerGen Plc for flotation and mentoring staff in adapting to life under accounting, financial, and taxation procedures and requirements relevant to the commercial world.

Aside from regular compliance work of accounting, audit and tax, Gavin has a habit of speaking his mind and identifying problems before deriving and implementing solutions for a range of business finance issues. He relishes the challenges of business and in the last 5 years has seen over £20 Million extracted from client businesses via takeovers and MBO’s.

Gavin has a grown up daughter and lives in St John’s with his wife Cristina. A keen supporter of Worcester Rugby Football Club and a passionate mountaineer he spends most of his spare time climbing or planning trips and has recently returned from Alaska having made the 6,194m summit of Denali [Mount McKinley]

Jane
Jane runs the payroll bureau, processing weekly and monthly payroll for clients, and providing personnel support. She is also the practice administrator looking after all administrative functions, organising any support services, and occasionally arranging for the office to have a well earned break. A proud grandmother to 3 grandchildren she lives near the River Severn is a keen country walker, and has been with the practice since 1989.

Janet
Janet looks after all aspects of personal taxation. A biological sciences graduate, she was “sidelined into working for the Inland Revenue”. Marriage to Alasdair elevated her to the role of administrator of his veterinary practice for 15 years. Janet returned to taxation 8 years ago and has been with the firm for 5 years.

Karen
Karen qualified as a Radiographer in Leeds but moved into commerce, eventually becoming a customer services manager for Calor Gas. She turned to the heady world of accountancy when she relocated to Worcestershire with her family in 1998. Karen joined as a trainee in 2000 and qualified in 2005. A keen horse rider, her spare time is fully occupied by husband, David, 2 busy children and 2 labradors.

Simon
Simon trained in the audit department of a medium sized firm of Chartered Accountants in London where he was involved in the audits of a number of plc clients. After qualifying he joined a food distribution company based in London as its Financial Controller. Upon promotion to Finance Director he helped it achieve its aim of national distribution, established a UK head office in Worcestershire and oversaw its transition to a plc.

In 1991 and by this time living in Worcestershire he did something he vowed he would never do and returned to general practice joining a small firm in Worcester where he was joined by Gavin Gardiner in 1997. Simon has a portfolio of clients ranging from those in light manufacturing to the service industry but as a result of his experience in the food industry has a large proportion of clients in the hotel/restaurant trade and food related sector.

Simon is married to Lucy and lives in Herefordshire. He has two children both currently at University. This explains why he is currently working long hours in the office. When he gets the chance of some free time, he has a season ticket at Worcester Rugby Football Club and enjoys supporting the Warriors home and away with his family. His wife says that he is a keen garden labourer but, in truth, if he never saw another flower bed that needed digging he would not mind.

Bruce
A 5 year old bearded collie, Bruce is the Gardiner Fosh “front of house manager”. He is always there to greet anyone arriving at the office and can be persuaded to provide stress relief to visitors and staff alike who he encourages to vigorously stroke him. His charge out rates are modest but sadly we must disclaim responsibility for any financial or taxation advice that he might offer or that clients might act upon.

Briefing Papers Page & Tax Information Page

If you are unable to access the tax and briefing papers please contact us direct.

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