Nexia BT, the independent audit, accounting and consulting firm, is to move to San Ġwann’s Capital Business Centre by the end of the year in anticipation of further growth, managing partner Brian Tonna told The Times Business.

The added business will enhance our repute, portfolio, and employer brand

The immediate objective of the firm’s relocation will be to gel the 40-member team based at the current headquarters at the Tower Business Centre in Swatar with the smaller team housed at the Marsascala premises where Mr Tonna started out as a sole practitioner in 1992.

“We needed space to house our growing team,” Mr Tonna admits. “The geography took its toll and separated the teams for a while. It’s time for them to be based in the same premises again so they can operate as a truly single outfit. That’s our foremost priority. We have outgrown both premises so the new office space will allow us to increase staff members beyond the projected 50 in the near future.”

While the teams gel, Mr Tonna plans to intensify his focus on a second objective – widening the scope of Nexia BT’s client portfolio to challenge the team and ultimately enhance the firm’s calling card which will, in turn, enable it to win more prestigious business locally and internationally.

As a mid-tier firm servicing mid-tier clients, Nexia BT is at a crossroads where it either takes the business to the next level or preserves its current guise at the risk of its competitiveness fading in the long term.

An entrepreneur at heart, Mr Tonna explains Nexia BT’s strategy is to target niches by offering a superior service than its competitors. It is now competing with major players in tenders for both advisory and assurance projects.

Nexia BT has complemented the tax, advisory, and audit expertise in its fold by partnering with local preferred associates as it works to win international business.

“We have to constantly compete with all the players in the market, large and small,” Mr Tonna explains. “Locally, there is extensive business we can cater to, from the larger SMEs to a start-up with a good idea. The key factor is offering services at the right price that still allows for profitability. The network helps us to market in a particular jurisdiction, but we also have to look beyond that. One way is to create a fully fledged marketing arm to promote Malta and our services more extensively overseas.”

This is the second corner the firm is seeking to turn in 20 years. Nine years ago, Mr Tonna had to foresight to climb the next rung on the ladder while running a successful, profitable business.

He recalls heading a team of six professionals in Marsascala as they serviced a healthy portfolio. The firm was in a good place – “profitable, comfortable, practically no debt” – but Mr Tonna knew the long-term scenario would be very different.

“When a team of people is not challenged enough with exciting and motivating work, you risk losing talent,” he explains. “We decided to begin to offer advisory services to clients. We were pro-active, examining clients’ models and finding ways to help them grow.

“We also realised we had to venture into international business. I saw great potential in Karl Cini and Manuel Castagna to be my partners, and soon after the opportunity to join Nexia International arose.

“The changes since then have been dramatic and the business flourished. Now we have consolidated but it is time to take the next step.”

The entire Nexia BT team of three partners, four senior managers and five departments has the potential to go the distance and rise to the challenge of considerable change with the talent within, Mr Tonna says.

But the only way a firm like Nexia BT can build on its current success, he adds, is to position itself in the market to provide a similar spectrum of services as the larger audit firms in the country. Boosting the team’s size will be essential if the firm is to take on the more profitable compliance and advisory business. With more resources, the firm will also be prepared for new challenges from both an international and local regulation perspective.

“The only way we can grow in volume, number, revenue and profitability, is through marketing,” Mr Tonna points out. “The added business brought in by that function will not only enhance our repute and our portfolio, but also build our employer brand. A multi-faceted strategy will see us into our next chapter.”