Our clients tell the GHP Horwath story best. In this section, we highlight stories that showcase our industry depth, and our services breadth.
- Client:
Evergreen International Aviation
- Challenge:
Audit services for privately held $700 million company with several subsidiary companies
- Solution:
Provide comprehensive assurance services
Founded more than 40 years ago, Evergreen International Aviation, Inc. is a privately held global aviation services company that is active through several subsidiary companies, all headquartered in McMinnville, Ore. With a network of global offices and affiliates, Evergreen consists of an international cargo airline that owns and operates a fleet of Boeing 747’s; an unlimited aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul facility; a full-service helicopter company; an aircraft ground handling company (the nation’s largest with 28 locations around the U.S); and an aircraft sales and leasing company. In addition, Evergreen owns and operates Evergreen Agricultural Enterprises and works closely with the not-for-profit Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, home of the “Spruce Goose." In fiscal 2008, the company generated in excess of $700 million in revenue.
Four years ago, Evergreen International began looking for a new public accounting firm for audits, and selected GHP Horwath. According to John Irwin, Chief Financial Officer at Evergreen, the company had been working with a large national firm and decided it was time to make a change.
Explains John, “We’re a fairly complicated audit to do since we have a number of diverse entities. Yet we needed a firm that would take the time to get to know our particular situation. When working with a large national firm, we found we had to spend too much time dealing with issues at the national level — and those people had no clue about what our business was and no clue about what we were really all about.”
John believes that GHP Horwath is different.
According to John, “My working relationship with the GHP Horwath partners and senior managers has been a good, open relationship. A key advantage for us is that they are not of the same organizational structure as the biggest of the CPA firms out there today. They don’t have the overhead or bureaucracy of the larger firms, so we’re working directly with them at the partner level and directly with the key decision makers on our account. If anything, their performance and procedures are even more detailed than the big three accounting firms.”
GHP Horwath is providing a full range of audit and assurance services. Says John, “While audit situations are pretty defined, GHP Horwath is much better at working with us to identify solutions rather than simply taking a stand-back approach — they are very good at proactive solutions, and coming up with resolutions to issues we might encounter.”
