Schenck merging with top 10 accounting firm

APPLETON - Accounting giant Clift-onLarsonAllen will merge with Wisconsin-based Schenck SC, taking over Schenck’s 10 Wisconsin offices on Jan. 1.

CliftonLarsonAllen is the nation’s eighth largest accounting firm, with $865 million in revenue last year, according to Accounting Today. Schenck ranks 55th, with $90.3 million in revenue.

The company provides audit, accounting, tax and business consulting services to privately held companies and midsize organizations in Wisconsin.

Combined, the two agencies will generate about $155 million in revenue annually from Wisconsin operations and employ more than 1,000 people in the state, said Steve DeBruyn, CliftonLarso-nAllen’s chief practice officer for the eastern Midwest.

“It takes a firm that’s solely focused on the Wisconsin market and adds it to our existing marketplace,” DeBryun said. “The exciting part for me was finding a firm with the reputation of Schenck that had a similar culture to CLA and that services those middlemarket companies and nonprofits and local governments.”

Headquartered in Appleton, Schenck has offices in Brookfield, Fond du Lac, Green Bay, Manitowoc, Milwaukee, Oconomowoc, Oshkosh, Sheboygan and Wausau. It has 62 partners and 375 employees.

CLA has locations in 13 Wisconsin cities.

Once the merger is complete, Schenck’s offices will be rebranded as CLA and the Schenck business will be dissolved.

Schenck President and CEO Daniel Young said the company has stayed “fiercely independent” over its history and that the firm wasn’t looking to merge. But conversations over the last year with CLA about best practices and the industry evolved into discussions about combining forces, Young said.

Schenck shareholders approved more extensive talks with CLA this summer and unanimously approved the combination at their annual meeting Nov. 13.

Young, who will stay on as chief practice officer for CLA’s Wisconsin region, said keeping oversight in Wisconsin, maintaining both firms’ workforce and the opportunity to tap CLA’s wider range of services made this a good move for Schenck.

“Bigger isn’t always better, but in this case, I think it is,” Young said. “Team members won’t be affected negatively. We’ll have the same people and the same billing rates, but more depth and breadth of services. We like the fact they’re big but community-based.”

Young said the merger isn’t expected to result in job cuts or the closing of either company’s existing offices.

“Our mantra is growth and serving our clients,” Young said. “We have no plans to reduce our workforce. We have no plans to change office locations.”

Young said Schenck will continue to move forward with combining its Brookfield and Milwaukee offices in a new building in Wauwatosa. The new building is in the same business park as CLA’s offices, which could also move into the building later next year.

CliftonLarsonAllen’s combination with Schenck comes seven years after Milwaukee-based Clifton Gunderson and Minneapolis-based LarsonAllen merged to become one of the 10 largest accounting companies in the country.