Citex bought the Birmingham-based QS last September in a £15.4m deal masterminded by former Symonds Facilities Management managing director Oliver Jones.
As part of the restructuring programme, Citex’s facilities and construction management arms – Bucknall Group, FBA and Marlin – will all be renamed. Citex said it would keep the Bucknall Austin name for now because it is so well known in quantity surveying circles, but added that it expects it to die out within the next 18 months.
The three companies will be replaced by four new skill-based staff divisions and three business sectors that will be headed by the former managing directors of Bucknall Group, FBA and Marlin. Oliver Jones and Steve Lee will remain chief executive and managing director of Citex Group respectively.
Lee said: “The key people in the organisation as it exists will take up sector positions rather than operating positions. They will lead Citex strategy for specific markets and call on any staff divisions they need to support them.” Bucknall Group managing director Tony Bevan will head the heavy engineering sector that includes the defence, utilities and process engineering sectors. Marlin’s Stuart Black will take charge of the technology, banking and insurance industries, and FBA’s John Fryer will head the government sector. The three will remain Citex directors.
Lee said the changes were designed to strengthen the Citex brand. He added that the firm needed to get away from the idea that it was a Birmingham-based QS, when in fact Bucknall Group accounted for only 15% of Citex turnover.
Bevan, Black and Fryer will manage multidisciplinary teams of staff drawn from four new “skills groups” or divisions: Citex Property and Facilities, Citex Project Management, Citex Consulting and Citex Bucknall Austin.
Citex Property and Facilities will include facilities managers, general practice surveyors, building surveyors and mechanical and electrical engineers. Existing FM commissions will be handled by staff in this division.
Citex Project Management will include project and construction managers. Citex Consulting will be made up of staff from the three former companies that specialise in FM consultancy, value engineering, risk management and management consultancy. Quantity surveying will remain the core business of Citex Bucknall Austin.
Lee said there would be no redundancies, staff moves or office closures as a result of the restructuring.
