UK built environment and construction consultant AA Projects has rebranded as Drees & Sommer UK, marking the completion of its merger with the partner-managed, global consulting company.
The integration bolsters AA Projects’ 25 years of expertise within the built environment, including project management and cost consultancy, with 50 years of innovative German engineering, international scale and a balanced portfolio of public and private sector experience. The combined business has 230 employees in the UK and operates from eight locations including its headquarters in Manchester.
UK Managing Director Kenneth Wood has joined the Drees & Sommer partnership and will continue to lead the multidisciplinary UK business as it grows its market share across the real estate, industrial, energy, infrastructure and public sectors.
The merger, the largest in Drees & Sommer’s history, began in March 2022 with the market-leading European consultant acquiring a minority stake in AA Projects. The integration has already borne fruit with the business securing positions on a number of market leading manufacturing and logistics projects.
Kenneth Wood, Managing Director of Drees & Sommer UK, said: “Ours is not a typical international merger story, nor is it a case of one large consultant swallowing another. The relationship between AA Projects and Drees & Sommer came about organically, through collaboration on client projects and shared growth ambitions, and that has extended into what has been a fruitful integration process over the last two years.
“Joining with another independent, entrepreneurial business means we have retained the agility to quickly respond to our clients’ needs, while also creating opportunities to add additional value and expertise to their real estate projects.
“Our combined proposition could not be more relevant for today’s construction and real estate challenges, where economic turbulence and the likelihood of incoming regulation are driving demand for expert project management and innovative approaches to decarbonisation.”
Headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, Drees & Sommer has more than 5,000 employees across 20 countries and 59 locations. An early mover in decarbonisation, Drees & Sommer has developed market leading expertise in net zero carbon and sustainability. Its own HQ in Stuttgart was constructed using Cradle to Cradle design principles, which means that a large portion of the materials can be reused after the building’s lifecycle or be fully degraded in a biological recycling process.
