Leading audit, accountancy, tax, and advisory firm Bishop Fleming has revealed ambitious plans to expand into a national business through several strategic merger and acquisitions, backed by a minority private equity investment.
The business has selected to partner with Synova – the innovative growth and private equity investor, which currently manages more than £1.7bn of capital in the UK, Ireland and Continental Europe across markets, including Financial Services.
The investment will enable Bishop Fleming to accelerate its planned growth strategy to become one of the leading national firms in the UK.
Bishop Fleming’s Managing Partner, Andrew Sandiford said:
“We launched our Better Growth business strategy two and half years ago, designed to double the size of our business through sustainable organic growth. Our performance during that time has been unrivalled in the mid-market space, such that we are now extending that Better Growth vision to grow beyond £200m and over 2,000 people.
This investment is the next logical step to develop Bishop Fleming on the national stage through strategic planned M&A activity.”
The firm’s Better Growth strategy represents a fresh vision for reshaping the firm for ambitious sustainable growth and an even more rewarding and stronger future for its clients.
The proposed expansion will bring new capacity, capability, specialist expertise and talent into the business, ensuring the firm can build on its award-winning client service excellence, and continuing its ambition to be the most rewarding firm in the UK for its clients, its people and its communities.
Over the last 12 months, the firm has undergone significant transformational change, becoming only the second accountancy firm to implement the full Workday ERP platform – a significant investment designed to unlock its full potential and provide the foundation to scale up its business.
The firm’s impressive performance over recent years has enabled such investment with fee growth of 15% to over £48m in 2025, after several successive years of double-digit growth, including impressive 20% year-on-year growth in its Audit service line alone.
Sandiford added:
“We are delighted to select Synova as an investment partner to our business. We believe they deliver the best of both worlds. Uniquely enabling us to remain majority partner-owned and led, maintaining control of our business through a traditional partnership business model, but with the exciting backing of a minority investment that perfectly aligns and accelerates our business growth plans.”
Commenting on the strategic investment, Oli Bevan, Partner at Synova added:
“Bishop Fleming has delivered impressive performance over recent years and has an exciting vision for its business. It has a solid heritage and foundation for growth and now has a platform to scale up its business. Synova are delighted to partner with the Bishop Fleming team on this exciting new chapter in their growth journey.”
The last twelve months has witnessed some significant milestones in Bishop Fleming’s growth ambition.
At the start of 2025, the firm launched a new Birmingham office in Colmore Row – the ninth office in its footprint, positioned to further expand across The Midlands. This was quickly followed by the significant expansion of its Bristol office, taking an adjacent floor in 10 Temple Back – making it the largest regional firm in the city by some distance. And in April the firm relocated its Exeter office to fabulous new premises in Winslade Park, Exeter.
With significant headcount expansion in mind, these office investments coupled with the firm’s award-winning Apprenticeship programme provide the platform for further organic growth within the existing firm.
This has been recognised in the market with the firm picking up four awards at the Accounting Excellence Awards, including Large Firm of the Year; and named Regional Tax Practice of the Year at the recent Tolley’s Tax awards.
The firm’s apprenticeship programme has been rated ‘Outstanding’ – only one of 18 Employer Providers in the UK to achieve such recognition, and it has been recertified as a Great Place to Work® for the third year running.
Bishop Fleming was guided through the transaction by Alantra – an independent global mid-market financial services firm that provides investment advice to mid-market businesses; together with transactional advisory, due diligence and legal from PwC, Strategy&, and Addleshaw Goddard.
Richard Holden, Director of Alantra concluded:
“It has been a pleasure to work with Andrew and the Bishop Fleming team over the last few months guiding them through the selection, shortlisting and transaction. It is rare to find an Accounting firm with such a clear focus on sustainable growth that also prioritises its client service and collaborative culture. Together with Synova they have a great future, and we look forward to watching Bishop Fleming’s growth accelerate.”
The transaction remains subject to regulatory approval.