SWINDON accountants and business advisers Haines Watts have achieved seventh place in the Best Companies Top Ten Accountancy Firms To Work For list.

The firm is the 14th largest accountancy brand in the country and has been named among the top 50 companies to work for in the south west.

Swindon’s managing partner Mike Lloyd said “We are delighted to be recognised in this way. Our team works with us not for us and without them we don’t have a business.

"We invest in their technical development and personal growth because if they thrive then so does our business.

“In Swindon we are thriving. We are currently recruiting for audit and accounts managers and newly qualified senior accountants due to our growth over the last couple of years.

"So, as we say in our social media posts, ‘don’t just follow us, join us!’”

Mr Lloyd has led the town's team for more than 25 years. The business' founder Cyril Haines Watts qualified as an accountant in 1930 and acquired his first client.

In the 1940s, the company’s first office was set up in a shed with a desk, two chairs, a filing cabinet and a shared telephone.

In the 1960s, a second partner joined the business and new services around tax and mechanised book-keeping were introduced. Two decades later, the company started to open offices across the UK.

Best Companies is an organisation which encourages brands to work effectively with their teams which, in turn, leads to high productivity and commercial success.

Their lists are seen as a mark of quality and best practice in employee engagement.

Founder and CEO Jonathan Austin said: “I would like to congratulate Haines Watts on its achievement. Best Companies have been producing the accreditation standard since 2006 to acknowledge excellence in the workplace.

“Organisations like this have continued to focus on their employees and have been rewarded with an engaged workforce who tell us that this is a best' company to work for.”

This is the latest recognition for the Haines Watts family. It was only two years ago that the company was named Accountancy Firm of the Year 2019 in the FDs’ excellence awards.