William Duncan and Company is a heritage accountancy firm more than 100 years old, based in Ayr. It was acquired by a Birmingham-based accountancy firm, Dains. Since the takeover, William Duncan has avoided a full rebrand because of its heritage status. It was later renamed William Duncan and Co trading as Dains Group, to set up the eventual adoption of the new name.

Bryson joined William Duncan and Co shortly after qualifying as a chartered accountant. He became a partner in 2001 and later took on the role of regional managing partner for Scotland for Dains Group. The group acquired Condies in May 2024 and Consilium in January 2025. Consilium rebranded in June 2026 to Dains Scotland.

As regional managing partner, Bryson oversees all three firms, with plans to slowly merge them into one name. The brand, he admits, has some way to go. “It’s a largely unknown brand in Scotland and we’re now trying to promote that and build the picture where we have three good firms operating locally.”

Of the decision to join Dains, Bryson told Scottish Financial News: “That was massive for the directors and partners. We knew it was the right thing to do, but we had to carefully manage the message to clients and the team. They [staff within William Duncan] were very proud of their own existence and what they created, so they took time to consider whether this was a good time to become part of a bigger operation. It was very careful planning in terms of their reputation, their operation, their cultural attitude both to clients and to their team.”

The message to clients was simple: the people had not changed, only the name. “We reassured the clients that it was still the individuals they were working with,” says Bryson. “We didn’t lose any significant clients. The clients are connected with the individuals they work with within the firms,” he says. “The interest for the client was, is it still you as the individual that I’m working with?”

“As long as we reassured them that they’d be looked after in the same way, they were quite happy, even though the brand had changed after all these years.”

For Bryson, the relationship matters more than the name above the door. “Once the relationship’s developed, the brand is almost unimportant, it’s the individual relationship,” he says. The brand carries more weight with people who aren’t yet clients: “It is those non-clients that are perhaps looking for accounting support that will take account of the brand and what it means, and the reputation that brand has.”

“The key to all of that is that clients still work with their local advisers. The benefit for the clients is that if there’s a complex situation, we have access to an advisory team that can come and support to an amazing extent. We don’t disturb the local relationships. That’s why clients stay with us. There was no change to the service. In fact, the service would improve, being part of a bigger organisation.”

“We’ve got a broad spectrum of service lines that we can offer, and that’s all for the benefit of our clients. I think we’ve got coverage now to support in almost all ways that we might be asked to do.”

After more than two decades with the firm, he says he is “immensely proud” of what the three practices have achieved so far, though he is clear that the work is not finished. “We’re definitely at the starting blocks. We’ve a way to go yet in terms of the integration.”

The next step is structural. The three firms still operate as separate legal entities, which Bryson says makes day-to-day working harder than it should be. William Duncan and Condies will be merged into Consilium’s trading company, now renamed Dains Scotland, by 1 April 2027 at the latest. “The intention is that one Dains Scotland is the way we need to be,” he says.

“We need to build growth organically so that with day-to-day operations, hopefully our clients will recommend us to others. We are not against further expansion, further investment. But it has to be the right firm, the right culture, the right processes, the right people to be a good fit for what we’re trying to create.”

“The ambition for us is to be one of the leading advisory firms across the UK, but for me, most importantly, Scotland. We are trying as best we can to work as one firm in Scotland and we can see clients are benefiting from that, but behind the scenes it does give us a bit of a challenge until we get into one legal entity.”

The comments come after Dains Group chief executive Richard McNeilly praised the Glasgow team at the official launch of the brand in Scotland on 21 September, calling it the fastest-growing business across the whole group.

The event, held at 200 Saint Vincent Street, brought together accountants, solicitors, bankers and other advisers who work with the firm. Bryson opened the evening by telling guests the launch was about more than a new name, and went on to outline plans for the future.