Architects’ merger fuels international ambitions

AN architectural giant has been born after a merger combined two firms with international ambitions.

With a combined turnover of £8.5m, Leeds-headquartered Darnton B3 will have a total of 150 staff, nine directors and offices across the UK.

The combined group of Darnton EGS and B3 will also have 55 staff based at their Leeds base.

The deal was brokered by accountants and business advisers JWPCreers and commercial law firm Andrew Jackson with funding through HSBC.

Alistair Hamilton, has become the managing director of DarntonB3. He is joined on the board by Alex Lodge, David Suggitt, Keith Hardcastle, Ciara Ryan, Rory Campbell-Pilling and Paul Davies from Darnton EGS, together with Dyfrig Jones and Simon Turner of Cardiff-based B3 Architects.

Director Alex Lodge spoke to TheBusinessDesk.com about the merger. He said: “We’ve always been a business that targets growth and expansion. We wanted to strengthen our offering and so coming together with complementary business was the obvious choice.

“With the merger we’ve now created a wider, more all-encompassing office structure, pushing further into geographical areas.”

Pre-merger Darnton EGS has worked for blue chip organisations Coca Cola and Nestle and is no stranger to mergers – in 2008 the Darnton Elgee merged with EG&S Ltd.

Mr Lodge continued: “B3 come from a different sector profile, they’ve completed many schemes in the sport and leisure sector, working on an Olympics scheme as well as the award-winning Glenn Roberts Sports centre in Scotland.

“We’re both strong in the commercial sector, with clients. With two businesses of our scale merged together, we can compete much more strongly on a national level.

“We’re very much one business now, and the sum of parts is greater than whole.”

Having completed and been contracted for work in Oman, China and Holland, as well as working on the Marks & Spencer flagship store on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, the firm also has ambitious plans for international growth.

Mr Lodge said the firm’s merger “created strength and synergies abroad as well as domestically” and is fuelling plans for more international work.

It hasn’t always been plain sailing for the firm, as Mr Lodge said: “Darnton EGS as a business was created in eye of the storm of the recession.

“There have been difficult times, but we have managed to retain a strong business through them and we’ve managed to deal with regions coming out of recession at different pace.

“Our staff are great across the board, however skills shortages do exist, as a hangover from difficult times in deep recession. People began avoiding industry, but we want to be an employer of choice.”

Though the company has its foundations in the North East, the development of its Leeds office is a priority.

Mr Lodge said: “With 55 staff in Leeds office, we do a lot of business in the region, such as the Airedale Conditioning site in Horsforth, worth in tens of millions, won a British Architecture Award for our project at Leeds College of Music and we have a strong affinity with Yorkshire

“Coming together as one business offers more opportunity within the combined firm, and the merger will strengthen attractiveness to potential employees and clients.”

JWPCreers, which has offices in York and Selby, supported Darnton EGS Ltd on the merger.

JWP Creers, corporate finance partner, Tony Farmer, says: “This a very exciting merger for Darnton EGS and B3 Architects, creating a significant new force in this sector. We worked closely with Darnton EGS to find the right partner and we are delighted with the outcome, especially as we advised on the merger to create Darnton EGS Ltd seven years ago.”

Also, advising on the merger were members of law firm Andrew Jackson’s corporate team, led by partner Philip Ashworth and supported by Grace Howell.

Mr Ashworth said: – “We have advised Darnton EGS over a number of years I am delighted to have acted in the merger with B3 Architects to create DarntonB3.’

“The deal, which was completed to timescales, creates a business with a strong office portfolio and platform from which DarntonB3 can advise its clients throughout the UK and internationally.”

Mike Craft, HSBC’s corporate relationship director in York, said: “I am pleased we have been able to help fund the merger of Darnton EGS and B3 Architects. HSBC’s £150 million SME fund for businesses in North Yorkshire is here to support businesses like DarntonB3 to grow and develop.”