SEARCH
London
+44 (0)20 3954 6690
Beaconsfield
+44 (0)1494 840 334
Flint International has been a client of Harwood Hutton since we arranged the formation of the company back in 1999.
In the intervening 22 years, the telecoms systems, datacentre and information communication technology (ICT) specialist has grown from the five founding directors to a team of around 800 and annual revenues in excess of £70 million.
Flint, whose headquarters are in Garston, near Watford, has operations throughout Europe, the Middle East, North America and Russia – a far cry from the turn of the millennium when the founders were squeezed into a bijou office in London End, Beaconsfield, a short walk from Harwood Hutton in Wycombe End.
It has been a remarkable success story founded on providing high-value services and resources into some of the fastest-growing and most exciting sectors of the modern industrial era.
Flint’s client roster includes blue chip names such as Cisco, Telefonica, BT and Ericsson, the company where Flint’s founders all worked and which set them on their way by awarding their first big contract, worth around £1m.
“We’ve come a long way, and we’ve been delighted to have Harwood Hutton by our side throughout the journey, always on hand to provide the support we needed,” said Flint chief executive Neil Burbidge.
Successful businesses can often outgrow the advisers on whom they relied at the start. That has not been the case with Flint and Harwood Hutton, and Neil Burbidge acknowledges the depth and quality of the service he and Flint continues to receive.
“Harwood Hutton are so much more than our auditors,” says Neil. “We have come to rely on their strategic insights into our business and the thought leadership that helps to steer a dynamic enterprise such as ours in the right direction.
“More than anything, we trust Harwood Hutton implicitly to get things right for us. It has been a trust well earned over all those years, starting with Michael Harwood, then Peter Agius and now Keir Singleton.”
Flint International has its own in-house finance team that consolidates the accounts filed in the various local markets. Harwood Hutton comes in to provide the oversight to ensure the business is operating in a compliant manner. “It’s a tried-and-tested system that gives us a great deal of peace of mind,” says Neil Burbidge.
Recently, Flint has been calling on the tax skills of Cormac Marum to help the business deal with the complexities of IR35, which has affected around one-in-eight of the company’s workforce. Cormac is also assisting with succession planning to ensure that when the time comes for the directors to retire, their ‘baby’ is left in the strongest position to keep growing.
“We’re proud of what we have achieved and we want to leave a lasting legacy,” says Neil. “I know I can rely on Harwood Hutton to help ensure that’s exactly what happens.”
Download this case study in a PDF format.
For more information about Flint International, visit www.flint-international.com
Join our mailing list to receive important news and insights for business leaders and private individuals
