Accounting firm PKF is further developing its hospitality team, with the promotion of Principle, Mitchell Stone, to Partner.

Over the last four years, PKF has developed its offering to the hospitality industry, helping owners and operators to better understand their own business as well as the wider industry.

Current PKF Lead hospitality Partner, Anthony Sullivan, told TheShout that Stone’s appointment highlights just how much the offer and the team have grown since deciding to concentrate on the hospitality industry four years ago.

“Our business growth is robust, and Mitch has been a big part of that,” Sullivan said. “Mitch has been with PKF for a total of 11 years, he worked with the firm for seven years, left to broaden his experience in London for four years and the returned to the firm four years ago.”

“It was four years ago we decided to create a specialised focus on the pub industry. We’d always had a presence in hospitality, but never had a team solely focused on the pub industry. Mitchell’s return was part of the catalyst to set a team with a sole focus on pubs. The offer has been very well accepted and we now act for a significant cross section of the industry in NSW.”

Sullivan told TheShout that PKF’s hospitality arm provides a broad range of services, including compliance, corporate structuring, taxation, succession planning and business process outsourcing. The utilisation of technology is key to the delivery of efficient and complete outcomes. PKF helps its customers to understand the importance of technology in accounting and subsequently how they can evolve their businesses.

“We deliver all accounting and advisory needs utilising our deep knowledge of the industry and specialised experts within the firm. We also educate our customers on how efficient they can become if they properly adopt technology and best practice for business process. At the end of the day, you can’t give the right advice if you don’t have the right information, so the better process and technology adopted by our clients, the better information and advice they get.”

PKF's Mitchell Stone

Sullivan added: “Succession has been a huge issue to tackle, the pub industry is particularly dominated by family businesses, we’ve helped a lot of families put the right succession plans in place, not just from a corporate structuring perspective but also from an ongoing governance perspective.”

“We are seeing more and more of that kind of work, and Mitch has proven himself to be a very valuable part of the team in assisting that process and developing our clients who have those needs.”

“The move to Partner will see Mitch’s role evolve; it gives us the opportunity to keep growing the client base. With Mitch stepping up a level we will have to recruit in order to fill the gap below him, and that enables us to continue to grow and bring on more clients.”

“Having a pure industry focus is helpful for our clients in many ways. We understand the business, the people and what is happening in the industry day to day. We also have gathered a large amount of industry data which we use to benchmark key performance indicators and assist with procurement.”

“It’s a great achievement, a huge step forward and he’s done it in a fantastic timeframe. He’s come back from overseas four years ago and for him to be in this position now is testament to his skill and the pace of growth experienced by the business.”

Stone told TheShout: “This is an exciting move for me and I’m really looking forward to evolving my involvement in PKF, our hospitality business and our clients, helping them and their businesses fully realise their potential.”

“We are very much in growth mode, we do things differently at PKF, accordingly we’ve got a strong point of difference in the market. In four years we’ve gone from a very small group of clients to acting for a large diverse group of businesses. it’s unusual for accounting firms to experience that level of growth in a relative short period of time.”

“Our brand is now well known in the industry and our growth is set to continue.”

Stone will officially become a Partner at PKF from 1 July, and PKF will once again be the official auditors of the 2018 Australian Liquor Industry Awards, which are organised and managed by TheShout, National Liquor News, Australian Hotelier and BARS&clubs.

Andy Young

Andy joined Intermedia as Editor of The Shout in 2015, writing news on a daily basis and also writing features for National Liquor News. Now Managing Editor of both The Shout and Bars and Clubs.

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