Latvia (25%) and Lithuania (24%) had the fastest growth in revenues in the financial year ended in June 2019, while Estonia saw stable growth, slightly under 5%. Grant Thornton Baltic’s revenues in Estonia made up nearly half of the total revenue for all three Baltic states. The company has over 100 employees and 1,500 clients in Estonia, and for the Baltics, 250 employees and over 2,600 clients. Many clients use Grant Thornton Baltic services in all three Baltic states.
Co-founder and leading partner of Grant Thornton Baltic Mati Nõmmiste said there were many reasons for growth. “Sustainable growth is possible only if we are able to retain and develop our employees and promote organisational culture where everyone’s needs are considered. Good organisational culture works for the good of a company because it attracts good people. In the current situation of workforce shortage, this has especially high value,” emphasised Mati Nõmmiste. Secondly, he made the point that good employees want and know how to offer good customer service. “We have succeeded at this. We are very happy that our customer satisfaction is high: eight out of ten clients would recommend us to others,” Nõmmiste added.
One reason for success is the ability to recognize new business directions and mould them into services suitable for clients. One such area is advisory services where traditional fields such as taxes, legal and business advisory have been complemented by digital services, business analytics and risk management services. “Advisory services are a growing field. The major interest from clients shows that we are moving in the right direction and additional new services will be added,” said Grant Thornton Baltic partner and head of advisory services Artur Suits. He added that since the economic environment is becoming more complicated, and technology continues to develop, competition is becoming stiffer and globalisation continues, the need for new solutions is increasing.
Changes are also taking place in traditional fields such as accounting. Grant Thornton Baltic partner and head of corporate accounting and outsourcing services Anastasia Borovaja said that accounting is becoming more of a supportive and advisory service for managers, and also that in the case of Grant Thornton Baltic the clients highly value that all accounting services are available from the same source. In addition, efficiency is important. “We use new technologies that make accounting processes fast and smooth. One of the services that has seen rapid growth is payroll accounting, as more and more companies – both large and small – have decided to outsource payroll,” said Borovaja.
The audit field has been most impacted by new regulations and more stringent oversight regarding the quality of auditor services. Mart Nõmper, partner and head of audit services, emphasised that quality and good customer service have always been in the focus for Grant Thornton Baltic. “With motivated, good specialists, we were able to post a good result in the season ended and will continue growth in the 2019/2020 financial year,” added Nõmper. He said many companies that aren’t subject to audit obligation have realised the benefits that auditing can generate. "An audit increases transparency and gives assurance that money matters and processes are in order. A good auditor helps clients find what is done well in the company and factors that need to be rectified and gives recommendations for eliminating problem areas.”
Grant Thornton Baltic OÜ is a member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTI). GTI‘s revenues grew 5.1% worldwide last year. The number of employees is over 56,000 and the company operates in more than 130 countries.
