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Ambitious accountancy firm Dains is betting on further growth in the East Midlands corporate finance market as it brings more than 100 colleagues together at a new Leicester base.
The accountancy and advisory firm has invested in a 10,845 sq ft office at Lakeside House, Grove Park, bringing its Leicester and Rugby teams under one roof and creating a platform for further expansion.
But as Mark Tuckwell, regional managing partner for Dains in the Midlands, tells Ellie Hollinshead, the move is about considerably more than property.
The former Magma co-founder sees the investment as part of a wider push to strengthen Dains’ position among privately owned businesses, particularly those approaching significant decisions around acquisitions, disposals, investment, funding and succession.
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I sit down with Mark Tuckwell to discuss the firm’s plans for the region, the corporate finance market and he explains that having the right people in place is becoming increasingly important as businesses grow.
Dains’ Leicester and Rugby teams previously operated from separate offices. Bringing them together means specialists across corporate finance, tax, audit, accounting and wider advisory services can work more closely on client assignments.
“Bringing teams together in one place makes collaboration much easier. Technology plays an important role, but there is still no substitute for being in the same room. People can work more closely together, learn from each other and build stronger relationships.”
For a corporate finance business, that collaboration can directly affect the service offered to clients.
A transaction rarely sits neatly within one discipline. A business preparing for a sale may need corporate finance advice alongside tax planning, due diligence, accounting support and wider strategic input.
Having those capabilities operating alongside each other gives Dains the opportunity to take a more joined-up approach to mandates.
Tuckwell believes that is particularly important as the firm’s client base becomes increasingly ambitious.
Dains is targeting privately owned businesses that are looking to scale, raise funding, acquire competitors, sell their companies or plan for succession.
The firm’s ambition is to “move upstream” and work with businesses where its broader advisory capability can make a meaningful difference.
That reflects Tuckwell’s own experience.
He began his career in tax at PwC before moving into transaction tax and then corporate finance. In 2011, he co-founded Leicester-based Magma with three other partners, building the business before it became part of Dains in 2023.
Joining Dains gave the business access to greater resources and a broader range of expertise, while allowing its team to continue focusing on client relationships.
Tuckwell said the experience has also influenced the way he views the challenges facing growing companies.
One of the biggest indicators that a business is ready for its next stage, he believes, is when its leadership recognises that it cannot continue doing everything itself.
“The acknowledgement, almost acknowledging you need support and help is not a weakness. It’s a strength.”
That can be particularly relevant when a company reaches the point where its owners are considering a transaction.
Whether the objective is raising investment, acquiring another business or preparing for a sale, decisions become more complex as the value and scale of the company increases.
Tuckwell has advised businesses across the region through those moments and said the strongest companies tend to recognise when specialist advice can help them achieve more.
The East Midlands provides a sizeable market for that strategy.
Leicester and the surrounding region have a large base of privately owned manufacturing, engineering, logistics, consumer, professional services and technology businesses, many of which are now navigating succession, investment and consolidation.
Dains wants to position itself as an adviser capable of staying with those companies throughout their growth journey.
That means developing long-term relationships rather than simply becoming involved when a transaction is ready to happen.
“Clients want to be treated as individuals and feel genuinely looked after. They value long-term relationships and advice that is tailored to their specific circumstances, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.”
The new Leicester office is designed to support that model.
It provides a larger regional hub where corporate finance specialists can work alongside tax, audit and advisory teams, while also giving Dains capacity to bring more people into the business.
There is room for around 15 additional colleagues when the office is fully occupied.
For Tuckwell, recruitment is a key part of the growth strategy.
“To support our growth ambitions as a business, we need ambitious people who share our values. Bringing in the right people allows us to support the right clients and continue building the business in the right way.”
That could mean further strengthening the corporate finance team as well as adding expertise across other service lines.
The wider objective is to create a deeper pool of specialists capable of supporting increasingly complex client mandates.
The investment also comes at a time when professional services firms are competing heavily for experienced corporate finance talent.
For Dains, the quality of its workplace is therefore part of its ability to attract the people it needs to grow.
The new office has been designed with collaborative working areas, meeting rooms and social spaces, alongside quieter areas for focused work.
Tuckwell said the intention is to create an environment where people actively want to spend time together.
That matters commercially because corporate finance remains a relationship-driven business.
Deals are built on trust, and the relationships between advisers, management teams, shareholders, funders and other professional advisers can be just as important as technical expertise.
The Leicester investment is also part of a wider programme of investment across Dains’ office network, including improvements to its Nottingham, Birmingham and London locations.
For the East Midlands operation, however, Leicester provides a particularly important base.
The new location at Grove Park places the firm within one of the region’s established business communities and gives it a central platform from which to serve clients across Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and the wider Midlands.
Tuckwell also believes the location will help Dains attract people who may previously have been less inclined to join the firm because of its previous office arrangements.
The office has capacity for further growth, but the ambition is not simply to fill desks.
Dains wants to build a team capable of supporting businesses as they become larger, more sophisticated and increasingly active in the transactions market.
That could put the firm in a stronger position to compete for larger corporate finance mandates across the region.
For Tuckwell, the opportunity ultimately comes back to the businesses Dains advises.
The East Midlands has no shortage of entrepreneurial companies, but many are reaching points where the decisions they face require a different level of advice.
An owner considering a sale needs to understand valuation, deal structure, tax and the market for their business. A company pursuing an acquisition needs funding, due diligence and integration advice. Businesses preparing for succession need to consider both the financial and personal implications of handing over control.
Those are the areas where Dains wants to build its reputation.
The new Leicester office therefore represents more than a consolidation of two teams.
It is a physical investment behind a broader commercial strategy: get more specialists in the same place, recruit more talent, deepen client relationships and compete for a greater share of the East Midlands’ corporate finance market.
Tuckwell’s own journey from tax into transactions and from business owner to regional managing partner gives him a particularly close view of that opportunity.
He has experienced the challenge of growing a professional services business himself and now wants Dains to help other businesses navigate their own next stages.
The Leicester office gives the firm the infrastructure to do that.
The next test will be whether the investment translates into what ultimately matters in corporate finance – more clients, bigger mandates and more successful transactions across the region.
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