Buckles heads South in fresh acquisition push

Chief executive Nigel Speirs, who has run Buckles for 23 years, says the company is in advanced talks with "two or three" businesses "way down South" and expects at least one acquisition to be completed in Q1. The company has so far acquired either the firm itself or the client bank of 13 IFAs - the last being the customer base of ML Financial Services three months ago - and Speirs says Buckles is also now in a position to target larger entities. "We have two or three [acquisitions] lined up outside of our traditional area [the North West] for Q1 next year," he says. "They are way dow...