Browne Craine is sponsoring the award for Company of the Year at Isle of Man Newspapers’ Awards for Excellence.

This is the first year the company has been a sponsor at the Awards for Excellence. Director Craig Mitchell explained that sponsoring an award is an opportunity to support the event as it celebrates our local community in so many ways:

’For a small island, our entrepreneurial spirit is amazing and it’s great that we have such a prestigious event which allows some of those businesses an opportunity to showcase and celebrate just a few of our island’s success stories.’

He continued: ’I am proud to say that Browne Craine has acted for a number of the island’s leading businesses and it has been a pleasure for us to work alongside them and help them succeed both locally and beyond our island’s shores.

’At Browne Craine we have always made a conscious effort to be part of our local community by trying to help those who need it; whether that’s been assisting new businesses in their formative days, directors acting as trustees on various charities which provide vital services to the island’s community, or offering our professional services to local charities who need our guidance and assistance.

’One of the many things our island is so good at is volunteering and raising money for many wonderful charities who do fantastic work on the Isle of Man, and by supporting that work, we like many others, can help in some way. Just recently a number of staff helped raise money for the Cancer Research Relay for Life and contributed, in a small way, to making the island’s event the leading fund raiser in the British Isles! That’s some achievement and it shows what a truly generous population we have on the island.’

Browne Craine has been lucky enough to draw Company of the Year - the award all local businesses would like to win, and when pressed Craig is certain about what makes a great company:

’Without doubt it’s your people. At Browne Craine we pride ourselves on the service which we offer to our clients, but if we didn’t have the right staff in place we just wouldn’t be able to operate and provide that service. I accept that we now live in the electronic age but I still believe that people do business with people, so without the right people our business simply wouldn’t exist.’

Browne Craine is a traditional firm of Chartered Accountants whose routes stem back to 1954. It currently employs 32 people and their career development is a vital element in the company’s success.

Craig said: ’For a firm our size we feel we offer training packages which compare favourably to any of our competitors. We take school leavers and graduates and we set them out on a career with an aim to train them into fully qualified accountants.

’As well as giving them on-the-job training, we offer a full financial package towards their professional qualifications. We’re approved trainers for the ACCA and we also now provide training for people who want to pursue the Chartered Accountancy qualification with ICAEW.

’We do all levels of local accountancy, audit, taxation and insolvency services.

’We have dedicated teams to ensure we can give each and every one of our clients, the type of service they deserve and should expect. Many of our clients have been with us for a long time, and I think that shows that we are meeting our targets as far as service is concerned.

’On a local basis, we’ve assisted everyone from big e-Gaming companies’ right down to your local sole trader operating out of an office in their home. But what I am particularly proud of is that a one-man band gets exactly the same level of service as any large international trading company, why shouldn’t they?’

Browne Craine is located on Peel Road in Burleigh Manor, believed to be one of the four original Douglas Manor houses.

They have been there since 1992 and have extended the building to accommodate their growing team. ’We pride ourselves on our building and we get lots of people coming and saying they can’t believe we work here

’ It’s nice having a building which is synonymous with Browne Craine.

’I should like to wish everyone who enters the Awards for Excellence the best of luck.’