Sweco swoops on UK rival to create £108m major player

● Move amid bid to be ‘consultancy of choice’ in UK ● Creates group with 1,300+ staff across 26 offices

Engineering, environment and design consultancy Sweco – which has worked on the Queensferry Crossing and has more than 250 staff in Scotland – has inked an acquisition it said will drive “sustainable” growth for the business in the UK.

Sweco UK has snapped up MLM Group in a move creating a combined business with an annual turnover of £108 million and more than 1,300 employees across 26 offices in the UK and Ireland.

The business is present in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and has worked on projects such as the A96 and Cross Tay Link Road in Perthshire. It is part of Swedish-headquartered Sweco, which says it is Europe’s largest engineering and architectural consultancy, with 15,500 staff across Europe and sales equivalent to £1.3 billion.

Sweco said the acquisition complements its skills in transport, environment, energy and building design, by incorporating MLM Group’s knowledge of structural engineering and compliance.

It added that it reflects its strategy “to become the consultancy of choice in the UK market for customers and employees”.

MLM Group was established in 1966, and is billed as one of the largest, privately-owned engineering, environmental and building control consultancies in the UK.

It has an annual revenue of about £40m and core earnings of about £4m, 460 staff, and 13 offices mainly located in London, the south of England and Ireland.

The transaction comes four years after Sweco entered the UK market with the acquisition of Grontmij in 2015. Since then, it said it has achieved year-on-year growth and consulted on landmark projects such as the Bloomberg European Headquarters in London – deemed the world’s most sustainable office building – and the modernisation of research sites for the British Antarctic Survey.

Max Joy, president of Sweco UK, said the acquisition “marks the start of an exciting new chapter in our UK growth story” and will open up new opportunities in key markets.

“We believe the combination of Sweco’s established expertise in building design, with MLM’S specialist structural engineering capabilities and world-class compliance offer is a compelling proposition for new and existing customers. MLM’S presence in the Southeast of England and Dublin is an excellent fit with our existing office network, providing an enlarged geographic footprint which brings us closer to our clients.”

Steve Oliver, chairman at MLM Group, said the deal speeds up its long-term growth ambitions. He added: “We will leverage the significant expertise we have across the business to continue to drive sustainable growth for Sweco in the UK.”