Consultancy firm BDO teams up with Accountants and Tax Advisors Beirens & Wellens
Consultancy firm BDO teams up with Accountants and Tax Advisors Beirens & Wellens
Consultancy firm BDO Belgium joins forces with the Antwerp Accountants and Tax Advisors Beirens & Wellens (B&W). Through this acquisition, BDO can continue its growth in providing accountancy, tax and legal advice to predominantly family companies, and at the same time, strengthen its position in the Antwerp port area. B&W was founded in 2008 by Michel Beirens and Luc Wellens, whose clients are mostly family companies and international enterprises.
In the last years, BDO mostly integrated consultancy companies specialised in digitalisation, fusions, acquisitions and cyber security. With the acquisition of B&W, the consultancy firm now strengthens its traditional accountancy and tax services.
“B&W’s focus on large and mid-size companies matches one-on-one with our inorganic growth strategy. We firmly believe in the added value of the complementary cooperation between both companies. Moreover, the strategic location of the office at the port of Antwerp fits in with the development of a close-knit, flexible network and with BDO's proximity vision. Last but not least, thanks to their know-how, training and experience, the 15 employees are a great asset in an era in which highly-skilled profiles are scarce,” says Peter Van Laer, CEO of BDO Belgium.
Port of Antwerp as an employer branding asset
BDO already had solid roots in Antwerp, but thanks to the new office, BDO is strengthening its position and portfolio in the port area. At the same time, the new BDO branch office - which does not require you to go through the Kennedy tunnel - will also be an asset for ‘employer branding’ and will serve as a kind of hub or beacon to attract customers and employees from the surrounding region.
Multidisciplinary and digital
The past years, B&W has evolved to an office with a multidisciplinary service offering. Thanks to far-reaching digitisation since 2017, accounting with the associated reporting and budgeting is done in real-time. This approach fits seamlessly with BDO, assuring the founders that their company is in good hands at BDO.
“Due to the increasing complexity of the same market, the increasingly stringent compliance requirements, and the accelerated digitisation and internationalisation, we stood at a new crossroads. Either we would make a new quantum leap ourselves, or we would hand over our customers and expertise to an organisation that would continue and upgrade our business and service at least as qualitatively and in a future-oriented manner. We chose for the second option. We are sure that our employees will feel at home within the BDO Family. Our customers who are active internationally can now call on the knowledge and expertise of BDO’s global network,” say founders Michel Beirens and Luc Wellens.
By the way, the two companies are no strangers for each other. Beirens & Wellens has already worked regularly with BDO for specific projects or when a customer required expertise in areas in which the office itself was less well equipped.
The founders Michel Beirens and Luc Wellens will stay aboard for a couple of years to ensure a smooth integration.