Deloitte UK records double-digit revenue growth and hails transformative year in Scotland

Deloitte, the business advisory firm, has hailed a ‘transformative 12 months’ in Scotland, where it has built on the previous year’s investments with the opening of its Greenhouse and Digital Studio in Edinburgh – the firm expects to add another twenty designers and software engineers to the facilities over the next 12 months.

The firm has increased revenue by £340m in the year ended 31 May 2017, from £3,040m to £3,380m. This is the seventh consecutive year of revenue growth and the second consecutive year of double-digit growth.

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Across the UK, the firm’s Consulting revenue grew by 13.6% to £859m, Audit and Risk Advisory by 13.1% to £932m, Tax was up by 5.7% to £691m and Financial Advisory, on a like-for-like basis, grew by 1.5% to £459m.

In June, Deloitte bolstered its digital offering with the acquisition of design proposition consultancy, Market Gravity, including its seven-strong team in Leith. Headcount across the three offices now stands at 602, with 32 partners and 56 directors.

Earlier this year, the firm hosted its inaugural Disrupt the Enterprise event in Scotland and hosted the country’s first-ever Datathon, as it sought to act as a fulcrum for the burgeoning tech and fintech sectors.

Steve Williams, Senior Partner for Deloitte in Scotland and Northern Ireland, said: “The last 12 months have been transformative for us in Scotland, as we’ve added a completely new range of capabilities to our offering and made steady progress across the country. The opening of the Deloitte Greenhouse was a pivotal moment for our Scottish practice a culmination of months of hard work that underlines our commitment to enabling our clients to develop digital and physical products that will help change their businesses. We plan to keep recruiting and developing this area of the practice, and use the facility to help the growing tech sector realise its full potential.”

David Sproul, Senior Partner and Chief Executive of Deloitte, commented on the annual results by saying: “This is a good performance in a complex and uncertain market, which has been impacted by Brexit and the elections in the US and UK. Our Consulting and Audit and Risk Advisory businesses both grew by double-digits. Consulting has continued to see significant demand for technology-enabled business transformation and there has been further strong growth in Deloitte Digital, our creative digital consultancy. The firm won a series of major audits this year, including BAE Systems, BP, Centrica and GlaxoSmithKline which has taken our share of the FTSE 100 audit market to 26% and we saw further success in the FTSE 250, private and international markets. Our Risk Advisory business has seen increasing demand for supplier risk, cyber and regulatory advice.

“Growth in tax was driven by the global tax reset, Brexit and the possibility of US tax reform, alongside continued demand for technology-enabled compliance services. Financial Advisory advised on 87 M&A deals last year with a total value of more than £7bn and we advised on 38% of main market IPOs. We also saw strong growth in forensic driven by a number of large investigations and regulatory remediation work across Europe. From an industry perspective, growth was notable in Consumer and Industrial Products and Life Sciences and Healthcare.

“We have continued to invest through this year of uncertainty and that investment in our people, in winning market share and in building market leading solutions has resulted in flat distributable profits.”

Deloitte also launched its social impact strategy, One Million Futures, which over five years aims to support one million people across the UK. The firm is working with Befriend a Child in Aberdeen; Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity; and Scotland’s national children’s charity, Children 1st to help improve the education, skills, and employability of the young people using their services.

Steve Williams added: “We are proud to support all three of these charities, which undertake life-changing work every day. Our One Million Futures strategy aims to help children and young adults, regardless of their background and the adversity they have faced in their lives, to go on and fulfil their potential. We believe a person’s background shouldn’t dictate their future and this strategy will help us to focus on creating more opportunities around jobs, skills, and training to the benefit of everyone involved.”

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