They had it all along — they just had to look to their past.
‘‘To 1871 when it first started as R.H Leary,’’ Ms McNamara said.
‘‘In 1930 they became Barr Burgess and Stewart.’’
It stuck with that name and expanded throughout the country under it until it became Coopers & Lybrand in the 1980s, Ms McNamara said.
From Coopers & Lybrand it turned into PricewaterhouseCoopers, commonly referred to as PwC, one of the world’s ‘‘Big Four’’ professional services companies.
‘‘Last November we had the opportunity to buy the accounting and advisory practice from PwC.
‘‘And so we thought what better way to pay tribute to all those people in our history than to bring back that name and rename it Barr Burgess and Stewart, trading as BB&S.’’
Ms McNamara completed the manager buyout with fellow former PwC partners, Richard McKnight, Maurice Noone and Julie Rickman.
Harking back to an original name struck a note with Dunedin customers and residents, Ms McNamara said.
‘‘Many of our clients had been loyal clients from back in the Barr Burgess and Stewart days in the late ’70s and ’80s.’’
It wasn’t just customers who remembered the old days — some of the current staff were around when the practice was last called Barr Burgess and Stewart.
‘‘Full circle for a lot people,’’ Ms McNamara said.
The company’s name comes from three of its early stakeholders: Peter Barr, Robert Burgess and Gordon Stewart.
‘‘Barr Burgess and Stewart [as R.H Leary] was the first accounting firm in New Zealand.
‘‘Particularly Peter Barr went on to be one of the founding members of the Institute of Accountants, or Society of Accountants as it was called back then,’’ Ms McNamara said.
Peter Barr’s son also came to have some prominence in the city.
‘‘His son was also Peter Barr but he was known as Forsyth Barr as well, who was obviously the Forsyth Barr from the sharebroking side of things’’ she said.
‘‘Forsyth had a large role in the city council over the years as well. They’re a well known family.’’
Now sitting around the office Ms McNamara and her colleagues often laugh at some of the rules in an old staff handbook.
‘‘It just got handed down over the years.
‘‘Out-of-pocket expenses if you were out of town were 50c per day ... if you were out of town you were allowed one toll call per week home, for married staff.’’
Being late was not looked on kindly.
‘‘Any tardiness in excess of 10 minutes must be reported to your manager and recorded on your timesheet.’’
That was not something the latest edition of Barr, Burgess and Stewart was worried about today, Ms McNamara said.
‘‘We have full flexible working practices ... definitely not worried about any tardiness.’’
