Bath-headquartered global engineering consultancy Buro Happold has acquired a firm specialising in planning and designing laboratories for the science and higher education sectors.
The takeover of London-based Abell Nepp is part of a new ambitious growth strategy at Buro Happold, whose CEO James Bruce last year announced plans to double in size of business over next five years through a series of acquisitions that will take staff numbers from 2,000 to 4,000.
The two firms have collaborated since Abell Nepp directors Chris Abell and Bruce Nepp launched the business in 2009, including on a major biomedical engineering hub at Imperial College London and the London Institute of Medical Sciences for the Medical Research Council.
Prior to the launch of Abell Nepp, Buro Happold worked on projects with its founders in their previous roles.
As a result, the firms said the natural next step was to combine the two practices to build on these foundations.
Buro Happold said the integration of Abell Nepp, which boasts a wide-ranging knowledge of the science, research and tech sectors would strengthen its client-consultant teams, ensuring it provided a seamless offer to clients that included design alongside integrated engineering services for its growing sectors.
Mr Bruce, pictured, said: “There is increasing interest for engineering-led design teams in the healthcare, science and technology sector, so having the ability to offer consulting services for laboratory planning and design is an exciting next step.
“Expanding our collective consultancy capabilities for existing and new clients both nationally and internationally forms a major part of Buro Happold’s vision for sustainable growth over the coming years.”
Since unveiling Buro Happold’s ambitious growth plans early last year it has now made four acquisitions – Abell Nepp, leading UK acoustics and AV consultancy Vanguardia and its subsidiary Crowd Dynamics International, US sustainability consulting firm Paladino and Company, and US-based higher education consultancy brightspot strategy.
Chris Abell said: “We’ve built a close relationship with Buro Happold over the past 20 years, so it was a logical move to unite our two likeminded practices.
“By combining our engineering and deep sector expertise we can leverage the wider capability set of the firm to offer a new level of integration and creativity to our client base.”
Bruce Nepp added: “As a specialist consultancy embedded within Buro Happold, we will continue to provide science-focused services to clients and architects as well as other engineers while expanding resources to improve the integration of laboratory design and technical services.
“We are enthusiastic about the new collaboration and the resulting creativity and synergy from our combined expertise.”
Buro Happold, which was launched from a small office in Bath in 1976, has grown into a leading international engineering consultancy and now has bases in 11 countries across the world.
It has worked on many of the UK’s largest construction projects of recent decades, including the British Museum’s iconic Great Court to the 2012 Olympic Stadium and Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium, as well as significant airport and infrastructure projects across the globe.
