Tom Astbury

I’m Director of Mergers & Acquisitions and am responsible for leading M&A activity across Fletchers Group. I’m an ACA qualified accountant with extensive experience in corporate development, supporting businesses across a wide range of industries and sizes to achieve their growth plans through mergers and acquisitions.

I’ve operated within M&A across multiple organisations, but when I joined Fletchers, something clicked. This is an organisation genuinely built around people at the worst moments of their lives, and my job was to help it grow. Every acquisition we make, every firm we bring into the group, means more clients who can access specialist legal expertise that might otherwise have been out of reach. That’s what drives me, using the commercial toolkit I’ve built over my career to expand access to justice.

Our team’s attention to detail ensures nothing is missed, while their caring and considered approach means sellers feel supported throughout the journey, not just processed through it. I’m proud to lead a team that balances so many aspects of M&A with such consistency.

Fletchers has bold ambitions and I thrive on being at the centre of that. Leading the M&A strategy means I get to shape not just individual transactions, but the long-term direction of the group. There’s a real energy in being part of an organisation that isn’t standing still, and I find that the pace and scale of what we’re building here brings out the best in me.

Outside of work, I have three young children, who keep me very firmly grounded – and very busy! What little spare time remains is spent outdoors and active. I play a variety of sports, with golf being a particular passion, though my handicap remains a work in progress… I’m also a committed, some might say long-suffering, Everton supporter, which has taught me a great deal about resilience, patience and finding optimism in the most challenging of circumstances. Skills, as it turns out, that translate remarkably well to M&A!