PRESS RELEASE
Temple Group Management deliver on expansion plans, further diversifying environmental services in relation to construction and habitat management
London, 9th October 2018: Temple Group Management (TGM) has acquired Arbeco, an independent environmental consultancy that provides ecology and arboricultural consultancy advice and assessments alongside practical mitigation and arboriculture services, including habitat creation and restoration, tree surgery and environmental mitigation work to the construction sector.
Arbeco Ltd, which now becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of TGM, will remain as a separate trading entity, with the Group structure now including Arbeco, along with the existing members of the Group; The Ecology Consultancy, Temple and The Green Infrastructure Consultancy. With the addition of Arbeco’s headcount of 26 the Group now employs over 200 staff and operates from seven regions across the UK, London, Sussex, West Midlands, East Anglia, North West, Yorkshire and Scotland.
The acquisition enables the companies to provide a combined offering to clients that is strengthened through service diversification, increased resourcing and enhanced technical abilities. This move signals a significant growth in ecology provision in the south east, the doubling in size of the arboricultural team, and an in-house habitats division to better meet client needs for streamlined project delivery and for meeting biodiversity conservation targets.
As part of the new structure, Arbeco will be dedicated to the delivery of arboricultural services and practical habitat management, including tree surgery, tree constraints plans, habitat creation and ecological mitigation measures with the arboricultural services currently offered by The Ecology Consultancy now being delivered by their London based staff under the Arbeco banner. The management of the company will be the responsibility of the founders Stephanie Murphy and Kevin Williamson. Stephanie will stay on as an executive director joined by one of The Ecology Consultancy’s directors Giles Coe, with the Group CEO Mark Southwood. Stephanie will also be on the board of The Ecology Consultancy alongside Giles and Mark.
Arbeco, Temple, and The Ecology Consultancy have already worked closely together on delivering key elements of the High Speed 2 rail project and on other major infrastructure projects and residential schemes. The acquisition builds on this close working relationship, fostered over recent years, particularly between The Ecology Consultancy and Arbeco. Their complementary services will now be better positioned to deliver a combination of ecology, arboriculture and practical habitat management, in addition to the sustainability and planning offered by Temple’s noise, air quality, and EIA planning teams. This enables the group of companies to provide a complete service to clients and a single point of contact for all terrestrial consultancy leading into development planning, and onwards to construction, allowing the group to further meet its commitment to helping their clients better carry out environmentally sound development projects throughout the UK.
Stephanie Murphy, Director, Arbeco: “We are really pleased and excited to be joining the Group. The success of Arbeco as a company has been established on our ability to work collaboratively with others, not least with The Ecology Consultancy, on a variety of projects over the past five years. Joining the Group will provide Arbeco with the additional support and structure, to enable the company to continue focus primarily on growth, diversification of services and to enable Arbeco to continue to provide our existing and new clients with high quality efficient services delivered on time, within budget and to our client’s specification”.
Giles Coe, Director, The Ecology Consultancy: “Having worked alongside Arbeco for many years on a variety of schemes I am excited by the prospect of working much more closely together and the enhanced range of specialisms including in-house habitat and strengthened arboricultural services that we can now offer clients as a single package. With combined teams we can be confident in providing the resources our clients need for short turnarounds as well as the experience and pragmatism that both Arbeco and The Ecology Consultancy are renowned for.”
Mark Southwood, Group CEO “Having been courted by others in the industry I’m delighted that Stephanie and Kevin have chosen to join Group and I’m extremely confident that the Arbeco team will make a significant and valuable contribution to Group. The decision to leave Arbeco as a trading entity is a deliberate one and recognises the strength of the brand. Similarly, the synergy between the companies within Group is clear and compelling and there is a huge opportunity for all staff and clients alike. Finally, Stephanie is a welcome addition to the Executive team bringing important gender diversity and established entrepreneurial credentials which will be extremely valuable to us delivering on our 2025 vision and growth ambitions”.
ENDS
For images, further information or comment:
Contact:
Ashley Bewick
ashley@ecologyconsultancy.co.uk
020 7378 1914
Notes to Editors
About the group:
Arbeco – Sussex based ecology, tree and habitat management consultancy. Arbeco also have an in-house experienced bat consultants with expertise in advanced bat survey techniques.
http://arbeco.co.uk
The Ecology Consultancy is an industry leading UK based ecology consultancy that has provided advice on wildlife and development issues to a wide range of clients in all sectors since its establishment in 1999. With offices in London, Norwich, Lewes, Lichfield, Wakefield The Ecology Consultancy provides ecology services to much of the UK.
The Ecology Consultancy’s work covers ecological surveys and assessments, mitigation and arboricultural services for construction, ranging from small residential developments to large-scale infrastructure projects including High Speed 2, Crossrail and London Gateway Port for DP World, as well working with many leading UK housing developers.
Green Infrastructure Consultancy – leaders in biodiverse roof design as well as green roof advocacy, training, policy and design, they are now involved with the planning and design of living walls and rain gardens as well as other green infrastructure elements.
https://greeninfrastructureconsultancy.com/
Temple – formed in 1997 is a leading environment, planning and sustainability consultancy with a long-established successful track record in delivering infrastructure and development projects.
http://www.templegroup.co.uk/
Temple Group Management – is the parent company which is non-trading and provides oversight of group, sponsors the internal innovation programme and provides a number of internal support services.
