Quantuma purchases Glasgow-based WRI Associates

Business advisory firm Quantuma has acquired Glasgow-based insolvency and restructuring practice WRI Associates. The news sees WRI’s nine team members join Quantuma, which takes ownership of the firm’s office in Scotland.

Founded in 2013, corporate recovery and business advisory firm Quantuma has seen a busy period recently, as a number of previously up-and-coming UK businesses have floundered amid difficult trading conditions. The firm has been expanding its team to meet heightened demand in its offices in London, Southampton, Bristol, Marlow, Watford, Brighton, Birmingham, Manchester, Ringwood and Weymouth. At the same time, Quantuma also sought to boost its revenues by diversifying its areas of expertise. In September 2019, this saw the consultancy launch a new transaction services practice, based in the firm’s London office.

Now, as the firm seeks to maintain its momentum into 2020, Quantuma has expanded into the new locale of Glasgow with the purchase of WRI Associates. One of Scotland's leading providers of corporate recovery and insolvency services, WRI’s purchase sees Quantuma strengthen its core capacity, while adding a number of new clients to its base.

WRI provides independent professional advice and solutions to businesses across all industries and sectors, while its team has a combined experience of over 200 years in corporate and personal insolvency. The acquisition will see Quantuma take on WRI’s office in Glasgow, headed by Partner Ian Wright and Director Scott Milne, and its seven members of staff. WRI will now operate under the Quantuma brand: a £25 million practice, employing a total of 250 staff.

Wright, who remains a Partner with Quantuma, stated, “We are delighted to be joining Quantuma at such an exciting time. The merger allows us to take advantage of Quantuma’s widely regarded and rapidly growing brand, whilst providing us with access to a wider portfolio of business advisory services which includes forensic accounting and Investigations amongst other services, which means it is business as usual with additional value add for our clients and introducers.”

This is Quantuma’s first move into Scotland, and the expansion north of Hadrian’s Wall follows significant geographical expansion in the last 18 months. In April 2019, the firm merged with Kingsland Business Recovery, which saw it take over offices in Bradford, Birmingham and Nottingham. Quantuma also opened its first office in the North West at a site in Manchester, while expanding internationally with new offices in Cyprus and Mauritius.  

Carl Jackson, Managing Director at Quantuma, commented, “We continue to grow rapidly organically, but when the opportunity occurs to merge with a quality practice such as WRI Associates then it makes sense to talk. Developing a footprint in Scotland has been on our agenda for some time, and we have been extremely impressed by the quality of work delivered by Ian and his team.”