Annual report 2024

Over the last year we have continued to deliver impressive growth, again achieving record growth in terms of both revenue and profit.

Financial

• Net revenue to £724 million: +11% from £654 million in 2023.
• Operating profit grew to £147 million: +0.4% from £146 million in 2023.
• Profit per partner of £682,000: +6% from £644,000 in 2023.

Talent

• Appointed 76 new Directors: 80% of which were promotions.
• Welcomed 980 new joiners: Celebrated the promotion of over 650 employees.
• 200 young people joined us across Ignite and Access Accountancy Work Experience.

Clients

• Clients are increasingly choosing to work with us: Because of our deep industry sector expertise, client choice rose from 31% in 2023 to 48% in 2024 (Meridian West Buyers Barometer 2024).
• 94% of clients would recommend us to a peer or colleague: According to feedback from 393 clients across services lines in 2024.
• Appointed Industry, Proposition and Channel Partner leaders: These leaders will help clients benefit from our wide range of services.
• We have engaged with over 10,000 clients through tailored content, events and insights for finance and leadership roles.

We invest in policies and programmes which reinforce our culture of everyday inclusion and strong focus on quality. 

Quality

• 97% of clients said we had a sharp focus on quality: Based on feedback from 383 clients in 2024.
• Consistently strong quality reviews: We have a history of consistently achieving 100% scores in AQR reviews and are proud of the strength of this record, which differentiates us in the market.
• Digital products: Our auditors have access to 51 digital products to enhance the quality of their work, including a new tool for 2024 which performs efficient, high-quality audit of payroll data.
• Digital tax team: In 2024, we established a Digital tax team, focused on using technology to make our work more efficient and improve how we help clients.

Environment

• Targets: Set ambitious targets against carbon, circularity, wellness, community and sustainable supply chains for our London office move.
• Travel: Launched new travel booking system highlighting environmental impact of travel to encourage environmentally conscious travel choices.
• Emissions: Invested in a third-party system to manage supplier emissions data and target setting more efficiently.
• Certification: Our Environmental Management system continues to be certified against ISO14001.

Equity, Inclusion and Diversity

• Championing gender balance: Launched our Mid-Career Momentum research which investigated the motivations and aspirations of professional women in the middle of their careers.
• Breaking down barriers: Took action to break down barriers for our ethnic minority talent including appointing a dedicated senior coach, establishing a Black talent network and signing the Black Talent Charter.
• Disability Champions: Established Disability Champions across 10 areas and completed the Disability Smart Audit.
• Building cultural awareness: Held firmwide ‘Allies against Hate’ training session, to help our people recognise and combat hate crime, particularly focusing on Islamophobia, racism, Antisemitism and LGBTQIA+ issues.

We encourage a culture of innovation in how we deliver our services and what we offer to our clients. This is enabled and led by our partners and supported by digital development programmes.

Digital, data and technology strategic value drivers

• How we ensure, measure and deliver digital value: In 2024 we established our four Strategic Value Drivers that will help us to measure and deliver value from our investments: create additional value, improve ways of working, deliver operational efficiency and protect our firm.

Revolutionising the way we work

• Artificial intelligence (AI): AI powered technology is changing the way we work as our people embrace digital tools such as our internal AI Hub to deliver the best value and quality for our clients and people.
• Personalised data: All our people have access to a personalised 'My Dashboard' which includes data specific to them. In 2024, 'My Dashboard' was accessed 300,000 times, replacing data that would previously have been accessed by manual reports.

Our aspiration is to be the ‘go to’ adviser for UK mid-market companies seeking to expand overseas and overseas companies seeking to invest into the UK. To support these businesses, we'll connect clients to relevant Grant Thornton people around the world or advise them on strategies to help them achieve their international goals.

International investment in 2024

• Grant Thornton Cyprus: Our strategic investment in Grant Thornton Cyprus allows the Cypriot firm to leverage the size and deep expertise of UK firm, and our firm to benefit from the skilled, expert workforce that Cyprus has to offer.
• Grant Thornton India: Continued to grow our relationship with India – named Consultancy Firm of the Year 2024 at the Indian Global Forum underscoring the firm’s dedication to fostering economic and cultural ties to India.
• Increased clients with international operations: The percentage of our client base with international operations is steadily increasing (up from 41% in 2021 to 45% in 2024).
• International Business Centre: Our dedicated International Business Centre team handled over 700 cross referrals of work between the UK firm and our network in 2024.

We are accelerating the growth of our partnership, with plans to grow the partnership at a faster rate than ever before, by investing in pathways for our people to develop into that role.

Our partnership in 2024

• Partnership grown by 8%: From 230 partners in 2023 to 250 at the end of 2024.
• Welcomed 39 new Partners: 77% of which were promotions.
• Private equity investment: In 2024 we explored how private equity investment could support the firm on its growth journey and made the landmark decision to transform the partnership with investment from Cinven.