PROFILE
Expertise – Azets provides expert support for up to 3,000 Teesside clients, from small shops to multi-million-pound businesses.
He remains down to earth, still enjoys a pint with lifelong friends, will always support the Boro, and takes particular pleasure from working with businesses to help them grow.
When clients do well, so does Azets, and the company has enjoyed double-digit growth in the last three years.
“ Since Brexit, businesses have needed more advice, and every Budget brings something new,” says Andrew.
“ The big story of the last Budget was inheritance tax, and that’ s become a huge area of support for our rural clients.”
As demand for Azets’ services grows, so does the need to recruit more expertise, with the emphasis firmly on developing local talent.
“ We have a lot of graduates from Teesside University and local colleges because we want to grow our own,” explains Andrew.
“ It’ s good to get a fresh perspective from the outside sometimes, but by recruiting local people, you get that buy-in to Teesside values of loyalty and resilience.
“ This is an area that’ s had it tough, so we pedal a bit harder. The whole of the leadership team here is made up of local people who’ ve grown with the business.”
A Business Resilience Toolkit has recently been launched to help firms negotiate tough times, and the Azets’ strapline is“ Improve lives of colleagues, clients and the community in a sustainable way”.
Azets is the headline sponsor of VelociTees, the annual Tees Business celebration of the region’ s fastest-growing businesses, as well as sponsor of the Digital Transformation category at the Tees Tech Awards.
“ Shy bairns get nowt, and Teesside doesn’ t always shout loudly enough about itself, so these awards are a really good platform to do that,” Andrew declares.
“ We have a strong insight into what’ s happening in the business community, but the awards always throw up some hidden gems even we didn’ t know about.
14 | Tees Business