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ARCADIS and Hyder: Enjoy the journey says UK boss Brookes

Second major acquisition completed last week was the ARCADIS purchase of Hyder Consulting for £296M. UK chief executive Alan Brookes explains how the integration will evolve, including retaining the Hyder name. 

Alan Brookes, UK MD ARCADIS

Bringing together the Arcadis and Hyder businesses gives you much greater market clout – what will your biggest challenge be in the next 12 months? 

The key challenge is to maintain a focus on delivering exceptional outcomes to our clients whilst we get to know one another and bring the two companies together as one.   

"Our focus in coming together is on creating value rather than cutting costs."

ARCADIS has a long history and track record of acquisitive growth and successfully coming together with other companies including RTKL (2007), Malcolm Pirnie (2009), EC Harris (2011) and Langdon & Seah (2012). We are therefore confident that we can successfully create value as we bring Hyder into ARCADIS.

What do you consider to be the most exciting aspect of the deal?

The most exciting aspect is undoubtedly welcoming Hyder’s talented professionals to ARCADIS. The complimentary and world-class capabilities that they bring will help us better serve our combined client base with global reach and help us deliver on our passion of improving the quality of life and being recognised as the best in our industry.

Hyder brings with it a huge amount of history. Will you retain the name?

There is great value in the Hyder brand, as there is in the other 11 active and successful brands that ARCADIS currently operates under.  The Hyder brand will be maintained with the addition of “An ARCADIS Company” to the logo and description.

You talk about cost savings from bringing the businesses together. Where are the big wins?

Our focus in coming together is on creating value rather than cutting costs. We do hope to realise some cost synergies through improved utilisation of our people and optimisation of our suppliers and real estate footprint, but the main emphasis will be to bring value through winning new client work as well as expanding work with existing clients.

The main assets of both businesses are staff and skills. How do you persuade 4,000 Hyder staff that working for a bigger business is best for careers?

ARCADIS is delighted to welcome Hyder’s people to our firm.  Working together will provide exciting career opportunities for all, including the ability to work on some of the most exciting and iconic projects in the world today; the ability to work in new parts of the world and learn from new professional colleagues within ARCADIS. 

From a client perspective how does this merger help deliver better quality and more efficiency? Why is this good for them?

The deal with Hyder Consulting significantly strengthens our offering to clients through the addition of best in class design and engineering solutions to our service portfolio across the whole asset lifecycle. 

Our clients now have access to over 28,000 professionals worldwide, providing us with significant strength in the markets our clients need us most.  We are now able to serve our clients delivering the most iconic and complex projects and programmes of work in the market today.

The Hyder Centres of Excellence for Design will be deployed across the ARCADIS portfolio, giving our clients a flexible and cost effective solution to their design needs

Along with RKTL, Callison, EC Harris and Langdon & Seah, ARCADIS has the ability to attract leading brands in the global consulting market to its portfolio, giving our clients access to the best professional services and solutions out there.

What new markets does this open up to you?

With the addition of Hyder, we are able to increase our reach and presence in key markets, including the Middle East, Asia, more of the UK and open up a new presence in Australia.  This means we are never far from where our clients need us, giving us the ability to operate in new markets for our clients and draw on additional resources for clients already in region.

What has been the reaction from your clients so far to the deal?

Initial reaction in the market has been very positive.  It shows that we taking the right course in reading the market and taking action to both realise our strategy and respond to client needs by offering them the breadth of capability in the markets where they need it the most.

Now that the deal is complete, what happens now in terms of restructuring the combined business?

Now that the deal has gone through and Hyder is part of ARCADIS, we have started the post-merger implementation process.  A steering committee has been created featuring senior representatives of ARCADIS and Hyder who will be working together to create value from our joint future together.

In a sentence why is Arcadis / Hyder now the place for infrastructure professionals to build a career?

We offer infrastructure professionals exciting opportunities to realise their potential through working with the industry’s best talent, on the world’s most complex projects and, all the while, ensure they enjoy the journey.

 

If you would like to contact Antony Oliver about this, or any other story, please email antony.oliver@infrastructure-intelligence.com.