Stantec drops ESI Consulting brand following integration

International design and infrastructure delivery firm Stantec has announced the formal integration of ESI Consulting, a leading scientific environmental consulting company, into the business. The merger comes half a year after the firm’s initial acquisition, and sees the ESI brand exit the global consulting stage.

ESI Consulting is a British an environmental advisory firm based in Shrewsbury. Previous projects involving the firm included the development of a sophisticated groundwater model that will prove critical to Highway England’s £1.5 billion ambition to upgrade the A14. In March, the firm was purchased by Canadian professional services giant Stantec, for an undisclosed fee, in a move saw ESI’s team of more than 50 professionals enriched Stantec’s technical proficiency.

Since then, Stantec has worked to further add to its capacity to serve client demand with the additional acquisition of fellow UK firm Peter Brett Associates. Now, as the Canadian group looks to integrate its new properties to its global outfit, it has been announced that ESI will fully rebrand to Stantec, and will operate as part of the company’s UK environmental services business – now one of the largest players in the UK infrastructure market.

Stantec’s UK presence includes all three of ESI’s UK offices, including the Shrewsbury headquarters and facilities in Reading and Cardiff, as well as an office of its own in the Welsh capital, having also recently opened another in Bristol. Existing UK operations are almost exclusively centred on Stantec’s 2016 $795 million cash buy of MWH Global, which employed thousands of British staff.

Commenting on the move, Cath Schefer, UK Managing Director of Stantec UK, said, “ESI has already proved to be an excellent addition to our UK business. Our teams share the same values and are committed to the communities we serve across the country. As a consequence, integrating our people has been very easy and the strength of our combined teams is clear to see. It’s an excellent collaboration and already a great success.”

Jon Cooke, Environmental Services Director at Stantec UK, added, “The experience and deep technical knowledge of our newly combined environmental services team will be one of the most sophisticated players in the UK. We have a great opportunity to play a significant part in the many infrastructure projects that will be delivered in the next decade.”

Stantec’s campaign of bolt-on acquisitions comes hot on the heels of a similar but much larger UK consulting industry M&A deal. Last summer another Canadian engineering consultancy giant – the SNC Lavalin Group – purchased UK and Scandinavia-based Atkins for a reported £2.1 billion. Atkins was at the centre of even larger British infrastructure projects than ESI, including Crossrail2 and the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant.