SW Accountants & Advisors celebrates 90th Australian anniversary
Professional services firm SW Accountants & Advisors is celebrating its 90th anniversary in Australia, tracing its heritage back to the founding of Hughes Fincher in Victoria in 1935.
Rebranding from ShineWing four years ago, SW Accountants & Advisors in its present guise emerged out of the Melbourne branch of Moore Stephens in 2015, which had started life as Hughes Fincher before the Second World War.
SW said that it will host a series of events throughout the year bringing together employees, clients, and other stakeholders to celebrate the milestone and honour the firm’s legacy, with a special graphic to feature across official communications and materials.
“This year marks an incredible milestone,” said CEO Duane Rogers. “It’s important to reflect on the people who have been integral to getting us to where we are today. Our firm’s purpose is to build lasting relationships with our clients and people to achieve success, and we’re proud to have many long-standing clients who have been with us for over 20 years.”
Rogers also noted the numerous long-serving partners and staff who had helped shape the firm over multiple decades of service, some for even forty years. Among them, SW’s first Australia managing partner Marco Carlei – now SW International managing director – who joined Moore Stephens in 1985 and became a partner two years later.
ShineWing itself has been operating in Australia since 2008, originally through a hook-up with Hall Chadwick (which has incidentally been growing its presence in Asia in recent years), before then merging with Moore Stephens in Melbourne during a rather chaotic period of breakaways and consolidation in the Australian accounting industry.
Growth track
Starting out its most recent era with a headcount of 32 partners, that number today sits at 46, including the admission of Amy Zhang and Brent Sheers in March. But there has been a notable sense of momentum at SW of late, and a clear strategic goal of growing its Sydney practice, which recently welcomed the team from Kreston Stanley Williamson.
The energy is demonstrated by SW’s recent marketing drive, ‘Australia’s Best Kept Accounting Secret’, which was launched in 2023 and will continue to be put forward during its anniversary year, alongside an employee branding campaign – ‘Discover endless possibilities’ – designed to showcase the variety of careers on offer at the firm.
In more solid terms, SW has grown its revenues by around 12 to 16 percent over its past two financial years to push beyond the $80 million mark, placing it at 22nd on the AFR’s annual list of the country’s largest organisations of its kind – two spots behind Moore. The firm has also now grown to over 400 professionals, with further offices in Brisbane and Perth.
