The maritime chronicles of Neptune Shipping and Condy Mathias – Navigating financial waters from London to Oz
Neptune Shipping Agency Ltd is a British-based company which, since 1957, has specialised in the international shipping of freight by road, rail, sea and air.
Managing Director, Rhonda Choroszewska, and her fellow Commercial Director, Steve Wyatt, have built the business into a global freight company with an annual turnover of more than £30million.
Neptune has been a client of Condy Mathias since the early 1990s, back when the accountancy firm was known as Mathias & Co.
Rhonda recalls: “Our business was quite small and with the move out of London we needed to find an accountant that could help with completing the year end audit and filing our year end accounts
“I recall when we first took on Mathias & Co as they were then, they did our very first audit and in those days – way before computer software and cloud-based tech – we had to balance the books manually.
“Anyone who is old enough to remember manual double entry bookkeeping will know what an unwieldy task it was, and the two Mathias partners, Stephen Emery and Jeremy Stone guided us through the entire process.
“Stephen has of course since retired but I do recall what a fantastic teacher he was. When I joined the business, he walked me through all the bookkeeping and back-office requirements I needed to familiarise myself with in order to run the accounts department at Neptune.
“When Justine Twomey took over from Stephen, I found she had the attributes that Stephen possessed, so I was reassured the transition would be easy for both sides
“Although I understand the finer points of the operational side of my business, I’m the first to admit that I’m not an accountant and this is where Justine and the team at Condy come in.
“Justine takes her time to explain, not just telling me what paperwork and figures I need to give her but also why HMRC needs certain information. I think it is this level of deeper comprehension that I have really come to value.
“Importantly, it means that I can provide exactly the right level of information to HMRC and other regularity bodies.”
Rhonda, who splits her time between the UK and Australia, knows that the team at Condy will always respond quickly to her enquiries.
Rhonda is thankful for the support that Mark Harvey at Condy Mathias has provided over the years with regards to advice when dealing with their bankers.
Neptune also entrust their payroll provision to Condy Mathias and Karen in the payroll team ensures all the PAYE requirements and workplace pension payments are handled accurately and on time.
Summing up her relationship with Condy Mathias, and Justine in particular, Rhonda said: “I really appreciate the fact that they are very upfront and not afraid to say what they think.
“Justine hand-holds and looks after Neptune but also isn’t afraid to tell it like it is which I think is the mark of an excellent business advisor.”
