AYR-based accountancy firm William Duncan & Co has expanded its operations in Glasgow and opened an office in Kilmarnock.

William Duncan & Co has established a corporate advisory division in Glasgow, which will provide services in areas such as mergers and acquisitions and fundraising for small and medium sized enterprises .

The Kilmarnock office opened last week, with an initial staff of 14. It will provide accountancy and tax advice services for SMEs.

The firm said the expansion would allow it to offer the full range of services to clients across the West of Scotland.

The corporate advisory division is headed by Mark Barry, who joined William Duncan after spells at HW Corporate Finance, the Symphony Corporate advisory business and KPMG.

Jamie Beal has joined as an associate after spending five years at HW Corporate Finance.

Director Graeme Bryson will head up the new Kilmarnock office. He specialises in agriculture.

Managing director, Robert Fergusson said: “The business has expanded significantly and introduced a number of new services in the past few years and it is an exciting time for us. Whilst we cover a wide geography, we do have an affinity with Ayrshire and the West of Scotland.”

He said William Duncan is embracing change with an increased emphasis on services delivered over the internet such as cloud accounting.

William Duncan opened an enlarged Glasgow office last year, home to its six-strong business recovery team.

It entered the Glasgow market in 2013 - appointing insolvency practitioner Annette Menzies to head the recovery team.

William Duncan generates annual fee income of around £5 million and has 80 employees.

It also has offices at Cumnock in Ayrshire, Tarbert in Argyll, and Hamilton in Lanarkshire.