The former owner of a practice swallowed up by national firm Knights has publicly described his disappointment at the multiple redundancies which followed.

John Wilson said in a LinkedIn post he was ‘still very shocked and disappointed’ that Cumbria firm Baines Wilson had ceased to exist as an independent business.

The acquisition by Knights was completed only last Friday but job cuts were announced to staff almost immediately. ‘I am particularly saddened that all the support staff have now been made redundant,’ said Wilson. ‘They are a group of exceptional people.’

Baines Wilson was founded in 1999 but Wilson stood down as director in 2017 for health reasons. He found out about the Knights acquisition only after it was announced last month and immediately resigned from his consultancy role.

In his message he thanks former colleagues and clients and said it was a source of personal pride to have contributed to the community in Carlisle and beyond.

Wilson reserved special thanks for his wife Diane and said that without her ‘there would not have been a Baines Wilson business to sell in 2023’. He added: ‘Officially “compliance and quality” has been her role over the last 15 years or so but the truth is that she helped develop, and for me epitomised, our ethos and whole approach to business. Di was made redundant today.’

Knights announced to the London Stock Exchange that 28 of the Baines Wilson team had joined the firm following completion of the acquisition.

The announcement stated that the Knights board expected the acquisition to be immediately earnings enhancing, with Baines Wilson expected to achieve a profit margin of 25% after what it called ‘synergy savings’.

In a statement today, a spokesperson for Knights said: ‘As Knights has its existing support staff and infrastructure, there are typically duplicated roles across the support staff when acquisitions are made. As a result, there have been a number of redundancies amongst the support staff at Baines Wilson following its acquisition.’

The firm is now in the top 50 in the UK for revenue and operates from 23 offices across England. It has made 21 acquisitions since listing in 2018.