To deepen its client offering and also attract and retain the best staff, Dains’ executive team embarked on a strategic growth plan in 2019, identifying likeminded businesses to join the group. The due diligence process for finding acquisition prospects was thorough, as McNeilly said: “We knew that having the best team of people goes hand in hand with providing the best client service. In order to encourage the best people from all fields of accountancy, we knew that we had to expand our reach through our geographical footprint and also the range of client services that we provide. This also allows us to offer fantastic career progression to our people. It was crucial that whichever business we joined forces with had a similar culture to us, a shared care for our people and clients, where this informs everything that we do.”
Dains made three acquisitions before securing private equity investment from Horizon Capital in 2021. The investment allowed it to begin a planned series of business mergers - Barringtons, Isosceles Finance, William Duncan & Co. PSTAX and S3TAX, HSKSG Greenhalgh, Magma Chartered Accountants and McInerney Saunders. Each of these acquisitions brought sector expertise to the Dains’ client offering and also a wider geographical spread. With businesses in Scotland and Ireland, Dains now has UK wide coverage. Dains will celebrate its 100th year in business in 2026.
From its roots in Lichfield, Staffordshire, Dains still holds true to its founding principles of a commitment to helping its clients to flourish and grow by providing the best quality proposition for them and its staff. McNeilly said: “The secret of Dains’ lasting success and sustained growth is our team. With each acquisition, we had to ensure the cultural fit was right and we invested in our change management team to ensure that hearts and minds were aligned. This supported a clear integration programme and served to ensure a single way of working so that we provided consistent service to our clients. We had brilliant collaboration from the get-go and now Dains Group is stronger than ever.”
Having been through a considerable period of significant growth itself, Dains is now able to advise clients based on its own business growth experience. McNeilly concluded: “It takes a brilliant team to grow an organisation in a controlled and profitable way and that is why we are in a strong position to confidently advise our clients. Our clients quite rightly expect our business to develop and to deliver ever improving insight and support – we thrive on this challenge and enjoy seeing our clients win in business. That winning mentality translates to our team too – we want our people to enjoying fulfilling careers, working with progressive colleagues and clients.
In order to have true control of your business growth, you need a detailed understanding of your business and cashflow. You need to be able to think ahead and anticipate risks and opportunities. Growth needs to be nurtured and can only be achieved with the right team in place. We believe we are ideally placed to help clients through our unique way of working and always seek to share our experience to ensure our clients’ flourish.”