Two of the South West’s leading independent accountancy practices have announced they are merging to create a new South West regional firm.

Thomas Westcott will join forces with Butterworth Jones to create a combined business with 24 partners and 190 staff across 18 offices in Devon and Somerset.

Devon-based Thomas Westcott is an established practice with offices across the county providing services including accountancy, audit, business recovery, corporate finance, financial planning and tax advice.

Somerset-based Butterworth Jones, founded almost 100 years ago, has five offices in Bridgwater, Burnham-on-Sea, Langport, Somerton and Weston-super-Mare.

Richard Thomas, Chairman of Thomas Westcott, said: “The merger is the ideal coming together for us and our clients as we continue to build a full-service accountancy business delivering first-class proactive support that adds real value to our clients.”

He added: “Butterworth Jones is a well-established and successful accountancy firm and we believe the two firms’ highly-complementary service offerings will significantly strengthen our overall market position in the South West and beyond.”

John Parker, Managing partner of Butterworth Jones, said: “A key advantage of this merger will be our ability to broaden the portfolio of services available to clients.

“Over almost a century we have provided high quality accountancy services and joining forces with Thomas Westcott will only enhance our reputation and create huge opportunities both for the business and our clients.”

He added: “Our hallmark is to deliver specialist services across a range of sectors through local offices.”