The desire for more aggressive growth within one of its businesses and the ability to open up joint venture opportunities to make that happen made DFK Oswin Griffiths Carlton a perfect fit for The Petrochem Group.
The New Zealand business has a varied portfolio of businesses, including 17 Caltex service stations, a motel, small retail stores, a number of landlord entities and commercial properties.
It moved from using the services of a big accounting firm to DFK Oswin Griffiths Carlton (DFK OGC) six years ago based on the personal relationships that were built between Petrochem Group CEO Dipak Bagia and DFK OGC’s directors Anit Patel, Mukesh Parshottam and Navin Patel.
Bringing together like-minded people
However, Dipak said the business relationship really started thanks to the introduction of like-minded people within the industry.
“We were wanting to aggressively grow our landlord entities and part of our discussions with Mukesh at the time were: how can we build this?” he said.
“He suggested some joint ventures with like-minded clients of their firm.
“That’s how the relationship started and it’s been very good ever since.
“At that stage, once that relationship was formed, we decided to move all our accounting services over to them.”
Breadth of knowledge from multiple partners
He said DFK OGC’s approach of having the partners work closely with his group in all the major aspects of the business – from negotiating with the banks, refinancing and investment strategies – had been good for the business.
Different partners in the firm guide Dipak within their speciality areas, from overall compliance reporting, accounting functions and business growth for each of the businesses within the portfolio.
“The big plus has been that we’ve been exposed to three or four of their partners,” he said.
“It’s unlike at other firms where you may just deal with one partner.
“With the nature of our business, it’s great to have multiple partners’ input for the knowledge, ideas and expertise.”
Significant growth achieved
Dipak said the results of working with DFK OGC were evident.
“We’ve grown our business quite significantly in terms of the number of sites we have, but also the investments in real estate and in what we call our joint venture partners with retail. That’s grown quite significantly.”
He said they had found DFK OGC’s approach to everything from services provided to how they build relationships one that had worked well for them.
“We’ve found them to be down to earth, obviously knowledgeable about what they do and approachable as well.
“They always welcome the phone.
“Any time I need them – any of the three partners – they’re there to pick up the phone.
“And they provide that service after hours as well, which is just great.”
DFK OGC is an Auckland chartered accounting firm that offers a full range of accounting, audit and business services to a range of local and international businesses.
