Stantec, a global leader in sustainable engineering and design, has announced its intention to acquire Barton Willmore, a leading UK planning and design consulting firm. The transaction is expected to close in early April 2022. Barton Willmore supports many of the largest and most transformational projects in the region’s residential, logistics, retail, infrastructure, energy, higher education, and urban regeneration sectors, providing services to both public and private sector clients. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 1936, Barton Willmore is the largest independent, inter-disciplinary consultancy in the UK, with over 300 town planners, master planners, urban and landscape designers, architects, and environmental planners employed across the country. Headquartered in Reading, Barton Willmore has offices in Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Kings Hill, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle, and Southampton.
“Barton Willmore and Stantec share a passion and commitment to delivering sustainable, dynamic projects that improve communities,” said Cath Schefer, Stantec’s Chief Operator Officer, Global. “It’s incredibly exciting to welcome Barton Willmore to our growing global team as we look to strengthen our project delivery expertise across several sectors. Barton Willmore’s master planning and urban design capabilities greatly enhance our ability to drive innovative solutions for clients across the globe.”
Iain Painting, Senior Partner at Barton Willmore commented: “Both Stantec and Barton Willmore are passionate about drawing on our shared expertise to deliver sustainable and lasting projects that improve communities around the world. By combining our respective technical and creative capabilities, plus our extensive collective strategic understanding, we believe we can deliver a real step-change to the UK market,”
Mark Sitch, a fellow Senior Partner at Barton Willmore said: “Stantec’s cultural values also mirror our own, and through comprehensive inter-disciplinary working, we are looking forward to delivering a unique, integrated, and highly attractive workplace for planners and designers, alongside their broad existing teams. We look forward to seeing how these integrated teams can transform project solutions for our clients across the UK and beyond.”
This announcement marks the most recent in a series of regional acquisition investments by Stantec in the UK market over the past several years, including Peter Brett Associates and ESI Consulting. Upon close, the Barton Willmore acquisition will bring Stantec’s regional presence to more than 2,500 team members distributed across the UK.
