Indy accounting firm merges with larger Louisville company, plans growth spurt

Louisville-based MCM CPAs & Advisors has entered the Indianapolis market by merging with accounting firm K.B. Parrish & Co. and says it’s already planning to nearly double its local headcount within three years.

K.B. Parrish, founded in 1952, has about 35 people in two Indianapolis offices: a west-side location at 6840 Eagle Highlands Way and a north-side location at 6515 E. 82nd St. 

On Aug. 1 K.B. Parrish merged with MCM, which has offices in Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky; Cincinnati; and Jeffersonville, Indiana. Post-merger, MCM now has about 400 employees between the five cities.

MCM has had a presence in Indiana since 2012, when it merged with Jeffersonville-based McCauley Nicolas CPAs & Advisors. Expanding into Indianapolis seemed like an obvious move from there, said MCM Managing Partner Diane Medley.

“It was really a natural progression up I-65,” Medley told IBJ.

For the past two years or so, MCM had been making inquiries with Indianapolis firms and other “centers of influence” looking for a possible merger partner, Medley said. A third party suggested K.B. Parrish, and after about two months’ worth of discussion the two firms decided to merge.

MCM’s annual revenue stands at $55 million, and the company is in active growth mode. Over the next three to five years, Medley said, the firm wants to double both its revenue and its employee base, either through organic growth or additional mergers.

In Indianapolis, that means growing annual revenue from the current $5 million to $10 million “in fairly short order” and increasing the staff size to about 60 people within the next three years, Medley said.

Some new services will also be added to the Indianapolis mix.

K.B. Parrish had specialized in serving auto dealerships, real estate companies, not-for-profit organizations and employee benefits firms.

MCM plans to add some new areas of focus in Indianapolis, including manufacturing, health care, financial institutions and construction. The firm will do this by transferring some of its Louisville employees to Indianapolis, and by recruiting new hires with the desired areas of expertise.

As a result of the merger, the K.B. Parrish name is going away. The two local offices will operate under the MCM moniker. All of the local client services employees will continue with MCM, Medley said, including four partners. A fifth partner is leaving the firm for another job. 

It’s too early yet to know whether any non-client-focused positions in Indianapolis will be cut, Medley said