Mark Southwood, Temple’s chair and founder, and Philippa Spence, Ramboll’s environment and health managing director, talk through the details with Environment Analyst’s Jack Morgan
Ramboll has bolstered its UK environment and health (E&H) team by 50% with the acquisition of Temple.
The move sees Ramboll’s biodiversity, impact assessment services strengthened, and sustainability services, such as arboriculture and socio-economics, added to its UK offering.
The companies both say strong alignment and complementarity are key factors in the deal.
Mark Southwood, founder and chair of Temple, says the acquisition “brings something exciting to the market from two genuine, purpose-driven innovators and creators”.
Although Ramboll has 18,000 employees across 35 countries, its E&H team in the UK stood at 300 before the acquisition. Temple has added 150 staff.
Southwood says: “The size of Ramboll’s E&H team in the UK means we have a voice and can influence the direction of travel. But then we also have the leverage of a global team.”
Temple now has greater access to high-profile clients. Ramboll invariably operates as a tier one consultant, which has many advantages, he adds.
Philippa Spence, managing director, Ramboll Environment and Health, says: “I have long admired Temple as a company that has a strong purpose, great reputation and deep expertise. The team complements Ramboll’s own capabilities and client base, and we will work hard to make our new colleagues feel at home.” She goes on to say: “People who join us like to stay with us”, citing the successful acquisition and integration of the 1,500-strong Environ in 2014, along with the 900-strong US consultancy OBG in 2018.
She adds that the difference between other companies and Ramboll “is how it feels to join us, the receiving culture has to be fantastic and we work hard to achieve this”.
The integration process is planned to conclude in the autumn.
Southwood says that Temple and Ramboll are well aligned in terms of their ethics, mission and vision which is very important.
He adds that on top of the strong alignment, the two companies have great complementarity: “We operate in slightly different areas to Ramboll. For example, Temple brings signifi cant clients in the transport and infrastructure space, and the property sector.
“Temple also adds services that were not in Ramboll’s offering in the UK, such as arboriculture, socio-economics and town planning.”
Similarly, Ramboll brings opportunities to Temple with new geographies such as Scotland and Ireland, and new markets such as energy and datacentres, in particular, ESG and international work and due diligence.
Ramboll’s engineering, landscape and architecture services will bring important design-led opportunities and a more integrated offering.
Southwood says this will be hugely enabling and exciting for Temple’s team. Ramboll also offers building services, which gives opportunities for Temple’s air quality/carbon and noise teams.
He says: “The acquisition helps promote Ramboll as a ‘one-stop shop’ and it “adds meaningful resilience and capacity”.
He adds: “Clients we have spoken to have been extremely positive as have our staff – which speaks to the quality and opportunity Ramboll brings.”
Spence echoes that the two companies and their services are very complementary. Temple is a “fantastic fit”, bolstering Ramboll’s team with more experts holding similar shared values.
She says: “Temple’s ability to diversify quickly out of rail when the sector shrank in 2023, and into other sectors where it is now strong, was hugely impressive. And its sector focus complements Ramboll’s target areas.”
There are also similarities between Temple’s associate model and the pragmatic approach Ramboll takes when certain projects need more staff. Spence says: “The associate model of Temple is extremely valuable and gives Ramboll extra resilience.”
Southwood says the acquisition came at the “right time for Temple”. He adds: “We wanted to bring meaningful investment to Temple. But we were mindful of our legacy. It had to be the right opportunity and fit for the team.”
“Ramboll has a good reputation as market leaders as does Temple, which makes it a good fit.”
For Ramboll, increased demand for the services of its E&H team, such as biodiversity and impact assessment, made the acquisition timely.
Spence names Biodiversity Net Gain and the Environment Act as factors driving work for Ramboll where Temple can provide extra capability and diversification – especially in areas such as arboriculture, a new service for Ramboll in the UK. Temple will also help Ramboll to meet increased demand for impact assessment services from big infrastructure projects in the UK.
Mark Skelton, Temple CEO, will join Ramboll’s global E & H executive leadership team as the global service line director for impact assessment and biodiversity & ecosystems, working closely with Philippa Spence.
Southwood will also be supporting the integration for the next three months. After this, he intends to spend more time on the Southwood Foundation and other sustainability-related ventures such as Linckia, a digital solutions provider.
For future acquisitions Ramboll is open to enquiries. Areas of interest in core geographies include the US, Germany, UK and Ireland, the Nordics and Asia-Pacific.
Spence says: “Ramboll operates E&H in 22 countries, if there is business in them serving Ramboll’s core strategy we would be open to enquiries.”