The move follows the recent opening of Wbg’s Prestwick office at 104 Main Street, headed up by director Andrew Flinn, a consolidation of John Kerr & Co in Saltcoats and Nicolsons in Kilmarnock under the new unified brand. This is part of a new office network that sees the business now operate across six main locations, comprising Aberdeen, Ayrshire, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Manchester.

Mr Flinn said: “Our Prestwick office may be new, but we’ve hit the ground running with an established fully-functioning team based in Ayrshire supporting existing and new clients of all sizes with a range of business services advice, supported by colleagues in our Glasgow office with complementary services such as audit, advisory, tax, and insolvency (corporate and personal).”

Scott Grant, Wbg’s business development director, added: “Financial wellbeing is increasingly recognised as a crucial aspect of overall employee wellbeing, impacting both personal lives and workplace productivity.

“Through joining Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce, we intend to offer employees of fellow member firms access to our financial wellbeing programme that provides debt advice to employees that are struggling with debt offered by our consumer debt team.

“By doing so, we would hope to help address local companies’ absenteeism and productivity issues caused by their employees’ debt problems.”

Mr Grant continued: “Another area of expertise we can offer local firms is specialist R&D tax advice. I suspect that some fellow member firms will currently be paying boutique companies a hefty sum for R&D work that we can provide more cost-effectively.

“And, while aware of R&D, some member firms may be unsure if they can claim for retrospective investment. In addition, the changes to the R&D structure may require fellow member firms to seek specialist guidance.

“It is through the provision of such expert advice that we hope to offer something a little different to the local business community that may not be available from their legacy accountancy partner.”

Lisa Stewart, Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce membership development officer, added: “I’m delighted to welcome Wbg to the chamber and am sure its comprehensive range of specialist business services will prove to be of great benefit to the local business community.”