Walkers opens office in ‘entrepreneur belt’

The Yorkshire Dales is home to many companies that are destined for bigger things.

This fact has encouraged an accountancy firm to open an office in the heart of the Dales to work with rural entrepreneurs.

Walkers Chartered Accountants is opening an office in Gargrave, North Yorkshire, on January 7, to serve the needs of business start-ups across the Dales.

Walker’s business partner Nicola Hudson said: “We’ve been in Keighley since 1974 and established a really solid business base in the town.

“In recent years, we’ve also picked up an increasing amount of work in the prosperous ‘entrepreneur belt’ between Skipton, Grassington and Clitheroe, so we were delighted when the opportunity arose to open a new office in that area.”

Walker’s new office is based at Cawood House on the Asquith Business Park Estate in Gargrave.

Ms Hudson added: “It makes for a very exciting start to the New Year for us and reflects our growing success as a business.”

Walkers, which has been based on Devonshire Street in Keighley, since 1991, employs 12 people.

In recent years, a number of major firms have opened small offices in the Yorkshire Dales, to help them provide an improved service for their custo- mers.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that four jobs had been created after cottages4you, one of Britain’s biggest cottage holiday providers, opened its first regional office in Grassington.

Cottages4you, which has more than 10,000 properties across the UK, said it was using the retail unit as “a one stop shop”. Nick Rudge, the managing director of cottages4you, which is based in Earby, Lancashire, said Grassington seemed an “obvious place” to start its regional office base, because the company has 230 owners within a 45-minute drive.

The company is part of the Hoseasons Group, which has a portfolio of more than 27,000 properties across the UK and Europe.