Private equity-backed accountancy group DJH has acquired Thorne Widgery, its 22nd deal in five years, gaining not just the largest accountancy firm in Herefordshire and Shropshire but a technology-led practice with its own financial software for the academies sector, a niche capability DJH says it wants to extend across the wider group. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

DJH is a Stoke-on-Trent-headquartered accountancy and professional services group backed by private equity firm Tenzing, now employing close to 900 staff across 19 offices in the UK and Ireland following a run of acquisitions including Forbes Dawson in May.

Thorne Widgery is an 80-year-old chartered accountancy practice based in Hereford, with further offices in Ludlow and Shrewsbury, offering audit, tax and business advisory services alongside a dedicated education-sector software and advisory offering. Existing leadership, including managing director Daniel Crowther, will continue to run the practice within the group.

What sets this deal apart from DJH's usual regional bolt-ons is the target's specialism, not its geography. Multi-academy trusts carry central legal responsibility for the finances of every school under them, reporting to the Department for Education and its funding agency under a regime that will tighten further when a revised Academy Trust Handbook takes effect in October 2026.

That compliance burden already supports dedicated practice lines at firms like UHY and James Cowper Kreston, which publish annual academy benchmarking research precisely because trust-level financial reporting, audit and DfE returns are specialist, recurring work rather than a generic add-on to school accounts.

Thorne Widgery's in-house academy software gives DJH a packaged version of that specialism to roll out across its wider client base, rather than building education-sector capability from scratch or relying on third-party MAT finance platforms.

For Ireland's accountancy market, the deal is a reminder that consolidators are increasingly buying for specific technical capability, not just client volume, a distinction likely to matter more as sector-specific compliance regimes grow more complex on both sides of the Irish Sea.

Source: International Accounting Bulletin / GOV.UK / James Cowper Kreston