The Art Of The Merger: Behind Paragon And Bond Davidson’s Partnership

Last month, Paragon and Bond Davidson merged to create a £22M turnover building and project management consultancy. Employing almost 200 people with offices in London, Esher, Manchester and Edinburgh, the merger under the Paragon brand will make the company one of the U.K.’s largest independent building and project management consultants, advising commercial property owners, funders, occupiers and advisors on the whole life cycle of property assets. 

When looking to complete the merger, both teams took care to preserve their individual emphasis on collaboration and personal connections while expanding the breadth of services offered by both companies. 

“The cultures of both businesses are very closely aligned and are inclusive and focus on high performance,” Bond Davidson Managing Director Matthew Dunn said. “We celebrate individuality, charisma and ambition. We pride ourselves on having teams that think differently and act quickly.”

Paragon was founded as an independent consultancy in London in 2009 whilst Bond Davidson was established 26 years ago in Esher. The companies have respective turnovers of £14M and £8M and employ close to 110 people and 80 people, respectively.

After both companies considered acquisitions as part of their growth plans, the principals felt the merger was well-timed. It also helped that four of the businesses’ principals have known each other for more than 20 years.

Paragon joint managing directors John Munday and Robert Perry, as well as Bond Davidson managing directors Malcolm Davidson and Matthew Dunn, developed an understanding of their companies’ capabilities. 

“Paragon and Bond Davidson complement each other perfectly in terms of our respective project and building consultancy services and specialisms,” Munday said. 

The merger allows Paragon and Bond Davidson to combine their specialties into a larger, more comprehensive building consultancy. Paragon maintained larger building surveying and due diligence offerings whilst Bond Davidson had a larger project services offering. The merged company now offers building surveying, project management, project monitoring, quantity surveying, cost management, drone surveying and dispute resolution support, in addition to other services. 

“We are now one unified team,” Munday said. “Both companies have been seeking new team members and by combining forces we partly achieve that objective, are stronger and can demonstrate greater experience. We also expect new job opportunities will be generated by the merger.”

To facilitate an easy transition, Paragon and Bond Davidson decided to operate under one brand to ensure clarity of communication as the merged business implements its strategic growth plans. The unified brand will also help to continue and enhance the level of service clients receive. 

“We are all about relationships, so the same people will be looking after the same clients throughout,” Dunn said. “The unified brand will not have any adverse impact on our service delivery, it will only improve it.”

The businesses will continue to operate as Paragon and Bond Davidson in the short term following the merger, before aligning under the Paragon brand in November. This period allows the controlled, phased integration of the two companies’ people, processes and technologies.

This feature was produced in collaboration between Bisnow Branded Content and Paragon Building Consultancy. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.