By Chris Annis

Living around Ipswich, it´s obvious just how much – and how fast – Suffolk is changing.

The cranes along the town´s waterfront are there for all to see, but travel further and you´ll soon find equally significant developments – in Bury St Edmunds, Felixstowe and at Adastral Park in Martlesham, for example.

Less apparent is the way business is changing. More and more of Suffolk´s firms are becoming serious players – not just in Britain´s economy, but on a global stage. And like other such businesses, they find they need services of a different order to help them prosper and grow – the sorts of services you´d usually associate with national Chartered Accountancy firms.

It´s an effect LB Group has seen before. We´re Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers, and our business has grown rapidly as firms along the A12 corridor have grown and prospered. We already have offices in Stratford, Chelmsford and Colchester and our business in and around Suffolk is growing fast.

The reason is simple. LB Group offers breadth of experience and depth of expertise few outside the City can match.

Many of our 55-strong team established their reputations at international firms. Take director Trevor Lake, for example. He led the financial reconstruction of Croatia´s shipbuilding industry before coming to LB Group. Or John Jardine, who helps head up our corporate finance boutique. He used to run RBS NatWest´s commercial banking business in the City of London. Before that, he had worked in most of the world´s big financial centres – in New York, Hong Kong, Singapore and so on.

Others, like me, have backgrounds in commerce and industry, so LB Group has much more to offer than traditional accountancy services.

For example, our corporate finance boutique makes it easy for clients to set up a new business, negotiate mergers and acquisitions, arrange management buy-outs and buy-ins, extract value from their businesses and raise additional finance. Our close links with banks and alternative sources of funding give them the best possible chance of success – even in these challenging times.

Given we do all this at rates that are really attractive, especially when compared to perceived larger, national firms, you can see why out business is moving on up. We look forward to working with you as you develop and grow.