DBK brand to disappear in the new year

The DBK brand will disappear from next week, less than a year after the Midlands-based firm was acquired by stock exchange-listed consultant RPS for £13m.

In a letter DBK’s founders said that from January 1 the firm would be rebranded under the RPS banner and all future commissions would be with RPS Consultancy Services.

The £567m-turnover RPS, which bought DBK in April to bulk up its building consultancy work after suffering a slowdown in its core energy business, provides consultancy services to clients across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.

The DBK brand is the latest consultancy brand to disappear from the market after the axing of the historic Sweett brand in September following its acquisition by Middle East-owned consultant Currie & Brown, which took place a year after the EC Harris and Hyder brands were absorbed into Dutch-based consultant Arcadis.

DBK was established in 2005 after a management buyout of Back Group by Tim Downing, Duncan Berry and Steve Kelly.

The trio grew the firm from a £5m-turnover consultant employing 70 staff to one that hit £12m turnover and employed over 140 people at the time of the RPS takeover.

The growth was fuelled by major projects wins across the UK, such as the revamp of Birmingham’s Mailbox shopping centre and the 42-storey Manhattan Loft Gardens residential tower in Stratford, east London.

DBK’s director shareholders Tim Downing, Duncan Berry and Steve Kelly signed three-year employment agreements with RPS at the time of DBK’s sale.

The trio said in the letter: “We are very proud of all that we have achieved as DBK and we recognise that this has only been possible through the commitment of the people we employ and your continued support.”

Downing added: “This is an extremely exciting next step in our future and a strategic move in the growth of our cost and project management division.

“Adopting the RPS brand will enable us to market ourselves under its global brand and maximise our opportunities to win work in an increasingly global marketplace.

“There will be no change in the way we operate. We have won and re-won business because of the ethos we operate to, the skills we offer and the type of people that we employ. This combination has taken us to the levels of success we are enjoying today and we see no need to change the formula.”

DBK will continue to exist as a non-trading business entity, so that all current appointments can remain in place.