Manchester property business involved in £22m merger

Manchester-based building and project consultancy Paragon has merged with Bond Davidson to create a £22m turnover business.

The new business will employ almost 200 people with additional offices in London, Edinburgh and Esher, Surrey.

The merged business, which has its Manchester office at the Freetrade Exchange, is currently advising on projects with a total construction value of £5bn and is now one of the UK’s largest independent building and project consultants.

The new company believes that its combined project monitoring offer will be the biggest of its kind in the UK, with 50 people advising on projects with a construction value of £3bn.

The businesses will continue to operate as Paragon and Bond Davidson in the short term following the merger before aligning under the Paragon brand in November.

This period will allow the controlled, phased integration of the two firms’ people, processes and technologies, ensuring levels of service excellence are maintained throughout.

Paragon and Bond Davidson unanimously decided to operate under one brand to ensure clarity of communication as the merged business implements its strategic growth plans, which is likely to include further mergers or acquisitions.

The shareholders of both businesses will all be shareholders in the merged company and will remain working in it.

Some of the businesses’ principals, Paragon joint managing directors, John Munday and Robert Perry, and Bond Davidson managing directors, Malcolm Davidson and Matthew Dunn, have known each other for more than 20 years.

John Munday said: “Paragon and Bond Davidson complement each other perfectly in terms of our respective project and building consultancy services and specialisms.

“We had a larger building surveying and due diligence offering whilst they had a larger project services offering. Together, we are significantly more skilled and able to advise a wider range of clients.

“Both businesses were independently considering acquisitions as part of their strategic growth plans, so the merger is perfectly timed.

“We are now one unified team. Both companies have been seeking new team members and by combining forces we partly achieve that objective, are stronger and can demonstrate greater experience. We also expect new job opportunities will be generated by the merger.”

Matthew Dunn added: “The cultures of both businesses are very closely aligned and are inclusive and high performance. We celebrate individuality, charisma and ambition.

“We pride ourselves on having teams that think differently and act quickly. We will continue to embrace and foster this distinct culture to create further commercial advantages for clients and even greater career opportunities for our people.

“We are all about relationships, so the same people will be looking after the same clients throughout. The unified brand will not have any adverse impact on our service delivery, it will only improve it.”

Paragon’s North West-based clients include Property Alliance Group, Northwood, Praxis, Select Property Group and City Block.

Bond Davidson was established 26 years ago in Esher, Surrey. The companies have respective turnovers of £14m and £8m and employ close to 110 people and 80 people respectively.

The merged company’s services and specialisms now include building surveying, project management, project monitoring, quantity surveying, cost management, M&E consultancy, environmental consultancy, occupier services, drone surveying, dispute resolution support services, rights of light and party wall services.