The acquisition will take the Group’s headcount to over 600 and sees an additional 40+ ecologists join the company’s terrestrial ecology team.
APEM Group has completed six acquisitions since 2021, all supported by WestBridge, as it pursues its growth strategy and international expansion.
Peter Barkley, partner at Westbridge, said:
“APEM Group continues to go from strength to strength both domestically and internationally. This new acquisition of Aspect Ecology builds on existing capabilities in terrestrial ecology, broadens the service offering and further enhances APEM’s reputation in the environmental consulting marketplace.
“The APEM Group Leadership Team continue to add culturally aligned businesses to the Group via its strategic acquisition strategy, while delivering value adding services to clients.”
Aspect supports developers with a full range of consultancy services from pre-purchase site acquisition through to planning applications and appeals, to post planning and implementation of necessary mitigation works.
Leah McGimpsey, APEM Group CEO, said:
“Aspect Ecology bring deep expertise in terrestrial ecology to the Group, building on our existing market-leading capabilities and significantly increasing our strength and depth. This acquisition provides substantial opportunity to continue our expansion into the infrastructure and built environment market.
“As the need for clean infrastructure increases, Aspect’s knowledge and work with clients in assessing the biodiversity of a developer’s plans and how to deliver Biodiversity Net Gain solutions, will be of real value to APEM’s own clients.”
Darroch Baker, managing director of the Freshwater and Terrestrial Division at APEM Group, added:
“I am pleased to welcome Alistair and the team at Aspect Ecology to the APEM Group. Providing solutions through innovative design and imaginative thinking, Aspect Ecology have a reputation for delivering quality across all the stages of a client’s project lifecycle.
“Balancing commercial outcomes with the impact on the natural environment is a key challenge for our clients, especially with the need to demonstrate biodiversity sustainability in the planning process. Aspect’s expertise in this area for residential and commercial developers and land owners, combined with our existing terrestrial teams working across the water and renewables sectors, provides our clients with an unrivalled advantage in delivering their projects.
“I’m also excited about the opportunities for shared learning across our combined terrestrial team and bringing best practice to our clients.”
Alistair Baxter, co-founder and senior director at Aspect Ecology commented:
“Being part of the APEM Group will provide great opportunities for the Aspect Ecology team and allows us to take forward our current operations with the added support of the Group infrastructure. APEM’S culture of high quality work mirrors that of Aspect Ecology’s so that our approaches are fully aligned.
“Joining forces with APEM will enable us to access new markets and offer additional services to our clients as well as more rapidly develop our technological capabilities aided by APEM’s market leading position.”