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GoodBrand, a consulting firm based in the UK’s capital, has been acquired by Anthesis Group for an undisclosed fee. The deal marks Anthesis’ 12th purchase since it was established six years ago, as it seeks to hasten its rapid expansion across Europe.
Founded in 1998, GoodBrand is a London-headquartered consultancy built on the idea that sustainability strategy could be a source of strategic advantage to clients. In the 20 years since its launch, this has seen the firm support a number of high-profile clients with the integration of sustainability insights with their innovation and strategy plans. Notable examples have seen GoodBrand work on Nespresso’s AAA Sustainability Quality Programme and Positive Cup strategy, Danone Nutricia’s Early Years Nutrition Partnership, and Unilever’s Sunlight Water Centres – part of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.
Sustainability is moving up the corporate agenda. Recent Bain & Company research found that 81% of companies believe sustainability is more important today than it was five years ago. A further 85% said that it will be more important still in another five years, suggesting that there is a major corporate appetite for consulting services to help bring their key business goals in line with their sustainability practices. As a result, firms like GoodBrand present an attractive proposition for acquisitions to other industry players.
Anthesis Group is a global sustainability and solutions provider, and since its formation in 2013, the firm has now made a total of 12 acquisitions to that end. This includes deals for Best Foot Forward, UMR, Caleb Management Services, Second Nature, M4C, LRS Consultancy (who also acquired Urban Mines), TEP ME, Mosaic Sustainability, Enveco SE, Sustain and MADE-BY, with GoodBrand becoming the latest addition to the firm.
The strategic acquisition supports Anthesis Group’s strong growth ambitions for the next phase of its development, which is expanding the breadth of sustainability and technology offerings available to its clients. Having grown to 250 experts across 11 countries in five years and continuing to achieve annual sales growth in excess of 25%, 2019 ambitions will see the company integrate more industry talent and consultancies, expanding services and geographic reach.
Commenting on the acquisition, Stuart McLachlan, Anthesis Group’s CEO said, “With the calibre of expertise, common values and services that unite perfectly with ours, I’m pleased to welcome GoodBrand to Anthesis. It will strengthen our offering and further enable us to answer these complex, but vital questions for our clients. We expect to see continued significant M&A activity as the professional services sector galvanises and mobilises in response to growing organisational needs for sustainability integration.”
Founder and Chairman of GoodBrand, Dean Sanders, added, “By joining Anthesis Group, with its global network and deep expertise across a wide range of sustainability areas, we are taking an important step forward in servicing our clients’ needs and achieving our mission to scale impact. We have been impressed by the ambition and focus of Anthesis in delivering sustainable solutions and found common ground in our shared values and ways of working.”
Related: Sustainability transformations remain difficult to achieve finds study.
