A YORKSHIRE professional services group has extended its foothold in North Yorkshire by merging with a Knaresborough accountancy practice.

The Mitchells Group, of Leeds, which includes Mitchells Accountants, has merged with chartered accountants and tax specialists, Leslie Couldwell & Co, acquiring its 4,000 sq ft, three-storey offices in Knaresborough for “a significant but undisclosed sum” with backing from Yorkshire Bank’s Harrogate Financial Solutions Centre (FSC).

Leslie Couldwell & Co, which was founded in 1998 and has three staff, delivers a range of accountancy and tax services to a variety of businesses and individuals in the Knaresborough area and further afield.

Under the terms of the merger, managing partner, Leslie Couldwell, becomes a director of Mitchells Group and the practice becomes able to provide services to five other professional services businesses within the group.

The group, whose 35 staff grew its turnover by more than 25 per cent during the recession, also has offices Harrogate, Headingley and London, and comprises businesses specialising in wealth management, corporate finance, search and selection, IT and business consulting.

David Mitchell, managing director of the Mitchells Group, said that the merger strengthened his firm’s presence on the Harrogate side of the A1.