Champion Accountants, the expert accountancy and advisory group, has bolstered its thriving audit team with the appointment of two talented audit professionals, Fahim Ashraf and Jake Edwards.
The appointments follow significant growth in Champion’s audit arm, after the group recorded a 31 per cent revenue increase in its audit services in 2023, compared to the same period in 2022.
Possessing several years of accounting experience from Greater Manchester firms, much of it delivering audits, Fahim joins Champion’s Manchester HQ as audit and accounts senior, while the appointment of Jake Edwards as audit and accounts semi-senior adds further depth to the team’s audit function.
As specialist auditors, Champion Accountants acts for numerous stand-alone companies and groups, many with overseas subsidiaries or parent companies. Its audit clients range in turnover from £250,000 to £70million+ and include statutory audits, grant funded project audits and smaller assurance assignments.
Fahim said: “It’s been fantastic to become part of the Champion team. In the short time since I joined, I’ve been able to put my experience to use while also benefitting from the extensive expertise of my new colleagues. What’s more, Champion’s software and technology make the work as efficient as possible. I’m confident that I’ll be able to deliver a top rate service, continue to develop my professional skills, and have access to a varied and exciting workload. Champion boasts a breadth of clients that span a range of sectors, which makes for an interesting and rewarding professional life.”
Jake added: “I’m delighted to be at Champion. The business has an outstanding reputation and is known for its innovation and strong values – striving for excellence and outstanding service. Joining the audit team will help me achieve my personal goal of making an impact on businesses in our region. I’m also very much looking forward to embracing the diversity of the clients that Champion represents. Playing a key role in a broad spectrum of businesses across a range of industries has always appealed to me, and I’ll certainly enjoy that variety here.”
Mark Turner, audit partner at Champion Accountants, said: “There is a real shortage of audit talent in our industry, and we’re thrilled to have Fahim and Jake joining us as skilled, experienced professionals. Their appointments allow us to further service demand for Champion’s audit experts and eliminate unnecessary audit stress for an increasing number of businesses.
“Some of our new audit clients were quoted a price hike of more than 50 per cent by their incumbent auditor, which is a significant sum for any business to absorb, especially on a project they are legally obligated to carry out. At Champion, we draw from a wide talent pool across our office network. Keeping our team strong and skilled and our processes efficient enables us to manage audits professionally, painlessly, to deadline, and on budget.”
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