Lighting up the arts
29 Jun 09
How do you celebrate a centenary while singing about the values of traditional CAs? Sponsor a musical, of course. That’s what Henderson Loggie, the firm chaired by George Hay did
by Richard Goslan
It’s not hard to see what attracted Henderson Loggie to sponsor a nationwide tour of the musical show Sunshine on Leith, in order to mark the firm’s centenary year.
As Henderson Loggie’s chairman George Hay explains, the firm saw several parallels between the play and the practice.
“We were particularly enticed by this project because we felt that it was a perfect fit with Henderson Loggie,” he says.
“It originated in Dundee, it was a high-quality production, great value for money and it went round Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, which are the three cities where we have expanded to out of our Dundee base.”
Sunshine on Leith also received universal acclaim for its marriage of drama and songs from the Proclaimers’ back catalogue, with one critic declaring: “Not since Willy Russell came up with Blood Brothers has Britain produced such a perfect and perfectly unexpected marriage of music and theatre”.
And thanks to Henderson Loggie’s sponsorship, the Dundee Rep Ensemble’s production was able to play to some 80,000 people on a tour around Scotland and even across the border in Coventry.
“Without our firm’s sponsorship they wouldn’t have been able to carry out the tour, so this was essential to them being able to take the play on the road,” says Hay.
“And although we have been long-term supporters of the Dundee Rep, something on that scale was very much a one off, for our centenary.
“But we’ll never say never – given the success, we would look at doing something similar again, maybe not on quite the same scale.”
Instead, Hay admits that Henderson Loggie is going to be “pretty careful” about what it spends on sponsorship or corporate hospitality in the current environment.
“We took the decision a while back to do the Sunshine on Leith sponsorship,” he says. “It’s been great and it’s gone really well, but we're not going to make it an annual event.
“I think it will be a struggle for the sectors which rely on the likes of corporate hospitality, or sponsorship from corporates. I think they’ll find it tough to get backing over the next year or so.”
Hay also acknowledges that it will be tough to repair the damage that’s been done to Scotland’s reputation for prudent and conservative financial services, following the near demise of the Royal Bank of Scotland, the Bank of Scotland and the Dunfermline Building Society.
That’s why in its centenary year, he’s keen to emphasise Henderson Loggie’s track record and the firm’s commitment to time-honoured values.
“Inevitably, Scotland’s reputation has taken a hit and it will take a while to recover,” he says.
“I think the reputation of the Scottish chartered accountant is still very strong, though. And we see ourselves as having the values of the traditional Scottish CA – of integrity, honesty, trust and credibility. We value these things very strongly.”
For Henderson Loggie, these are values that date back to early 20th century Dundee, when James Henderson and Robert Loggie, who were both in their early 20s at the time, started out in business together.
At that time, the partners did most of their work for one of the city’s jute mills, which was owned and run by Henderson’s family. Turnover in their first year as an accounting firm came to more than £200, with a profit of £89.
The partnership prospered until the outbreak of the First World War, but before he could even get to the front, James Henderson was killed in a Dundee drill hall when a weapon went off by accident.
His untimely death did not stop the firm’s growth, however, and over the years Henderson Loggie opened offices in Fife and in the 1970s took over the practice of Pringle and Watt.
The firm saw more significant growth in the 1990s, when it took over operations from both KPMG and Ernst & Young in Dundee, from where George Hay joined. That was followed by a period of consolidation before Henderson Loggie opened offices in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and then, through a merger with Sinclair Wood, in Glasgow. Despite the current market conditions, Hay says the firm’s growth is set to continue.
“We're still looking for growth in our relatively newer offices, such as Edinburgh and Aberdeen,” he says. “Overall, we’re still looking to expand from our 2008 base – which in the current conditions is not bad.”
Henderson Loggie recently appointed Bob Steel as its new managing partner, with a brief to further expand the firm in sectors such as forensic accounting, charities, SMEs and the public sector.
“I am delighted Bob Steel is taking over as the firm’s managing partner,” says Hay.
“He has a background in corporate finance and together with his extensive commercial experience, it makes him the ideal person to manage our business in challenging economic conditions. For Henderson Loggie clients, an added benefit of the appointment is that it will allow former managing partner Steve Cartwright to resume his valued work with them. He will also push forward with one of Henderson Loggie’s key targets – the continuing development of our public sector audit services.”
Henderson Loggie now has a roster of 20 partners, with a staff of more than 200 and turnover of about £10m.
But along with the expansion, George Hay says the firm has also moved with the deteriorating economic environment to make sure its offering to existing clients is relevant to the times.
“We’re refocusing our offering,” he says. “We've been around for 100 years and a lot of our clients have been with us – not quite that long – but a lot of them have been around a long time.
“We’ve got a good relationship with our clients and we’ve got to insure that we work with them in a way that ensures that they survive and therefore we survive for another hundred years.”