KPMG could close Mayfair private members’ club in cost-cutting drive
Big Four audit firm KPMG is reportedly planning on shutting down its five-storey Mayfair private members’ club as part of a cost-cutting drive.
KPMG opened the club in a Mayfair townhouse at 20 Grosvenor Street in 2015.
Number Twenty offers guests a private restaurant, a rooftop terrace and client meeting rooms.
Read more: KPMG launches £100m cost-cutting programme
On its website KPMG said: “We have taken two historic buildings in Mayfair, redesigned and rebuilt them from the ground up to create a beautiful and exciting space for you and us to work together.”
The move, reported by The Sunday Telegraph, is part of a wider cost-cutting drive dubbed Project Zebra.
As part of this, the firm confirmed today that it is planning on moving its market and sales team from Canary Wharf to Reading.
The restructure puts around 50 roles at risk of redundancy.
Read more: KPMG in exclusive talks to sell pensions arm to private equity firm for more than £200m
A KPMG spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we are changing the structure of our marketing and sales divisions to create a marketing centre of expertise in the firm’s new Reading office, where the majority of our marketing specialists will be based.”
The firm said the cost cuts come in the context of an investment of £200m in its audit practice by 2020.
The investment in its audit practice followed a scathing audit quality report from watchdog the Financial Reporting Council in 2018 in addition to its role as auditor to collapsed outsourcer Carillion.