LaBella expands into UK with acquisition of Scottish firm

Listen to this article

Rochester-based LaBella Associates is expanding to the United Kingdom, greatly enhancing its presence in Europe with the acquisition of Kiloh Associates.

A multidisciplinary engineering firm founded in 1975, Kiloh Associates is headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland, and has five offices in the UK. The firm specializes in civil, structural, geotechnical and environmental disciplines.

LaBella established an office in Madrid a decade ago, and CEO Steven Metzger said the time was right to expand beyond Spain.

“After 10 years of a successful tenure in Spain, we felt it was the right time to evaluate opportunities in other European regions,” Metzger said. “After evaluating the market and recognizing Kiloh’s similar growth mindset, we knew the partnership provided a unique opportunity for us to expand to the UK.”

LaBella’s Madrid office features architectural and electro-mechanical specialist services. Kiloh provides engineering design services for a wide range of projects for the petrochemical and pharmaceutical industry, food and dairy, power and energy, manufacturing and construction, the the leisure industry, commercial and residential developments, as well as public authority projects both in the field of regeneration and new build.

Being separated by an ocean does not present logical issues, according to Metzger.

“We have the infrastructure in place to connect our employees wherever they are, and our clients benefit from access to global talent,” Metzger said.

LaBella’s management team became familiar with Kiloh when jointly pursuing a project opportunity in Europe. This is the firm’s ninth acquisition in the past six years.

“After getting to know each other, we realized that Kiloh’s expertise and experience, as well as its people and culture, aligned extremely well with LaBella’s,” Metzger said. “Kiloh, a growing company, was very attracted to LaBella’s size and multi-disciplinary offerings that would help foster their growth and allow them to offer additional solutions to their clients.”

Kiloh owner Stuart Burke, in a news release, said there was a kindred growth mindset between the two companies.

“We work with many large clients who have more needs than Kiloh can fill alone,” said Burke, who will oversee LaBella’s operations in the UK. “With the scale LaBella brings, we can grow together and offer additional solutions.”

[email protected]/(585) 653-4020