For the past 10 years Williamsburg Environmental Group Inc.’s owners have been planning to merge with a larger firm; the organization announced Monday it found a match.
Stantec, a Canadian-headquartered design and engineering firm consisting more than 200 offices across the globe, will take ownership of WEG, which is a locally owned environmental and engineering firm. WEG has three offices across the state: New Town in James City County, Fredericksburg and Richmond.
“I think it’s an exciting move for us in the future and we’re excited because our employees will have a lot more opportunities for employment growth and geographic growth,” said Ron Boyd, WEG president and co-founder.
Boyd and Mike Kelly, vice president and co-founder, formed WEG in 1990 and have grown the company from its start in a garage to a 98-employee firm with its corporate office in New Town. As Boyd and Kelly draw closer to retirement, they think this decision will ensure the company moves in the right direction to continue to grow and succeed.
Within the last year and a half, the company has been “courted” by a few potential parent firms.
“As we learned more about them … Stantec seemed to be the best cultural fit for us,” Boyd said. “The big thing that we like about this was that all of our employees will have employment opportunities with Stantec.”
He said the fit was right for the employees as well as the companies served. This merger will enable WEG to provide services to a wider range of clients in more locations and will allow Stantec to expand farther into Virginia. Stantec currently has offices in Fairfax and Richmond but none in the lower part of Virginia.
Many larger companies in the field put engineering ahead of environmental concerns, but Stantec — a company with more than 13,000 employees — focuses on environmental, Boyd said.
“We just felt like it was a great position to move into. … It’s kind of a natural ownership transition for consulting firms of our size,” Boyd said. “WEG will pretty much stay doing what WEG does, just a different name.”
Under new ownership, WEG’s name will change to Stantec.
Currently, WEG is certified as a small business through Virginia’s Department of Minority Business Enterprise’s Small, Women and Minority Owned certification program. That designation will be lost under Stantec’s ownership, which means WEG will lose some contracts. SWaM-certified vendors are listed in the SWaM Vendor Directory. The purpose of the SWaM program is to “enhance procurement opportunities for SWaM business participating in state-funded projects” according to the DMBE website.
Boyd said the opportunities for new contracts through Stantec’s more than 200 locations outweighed the cost of losing or not getting SWaM contracts.
In addition to WEG, Stantec will take ownership of Cultural Resources Inc., a Glen Allen-based company that has some common ownership with WEG but is a completely separate company. Between WEG and CRI, there are about 115 employees, all of whom will have a job with Stantec.
“We strive for top-tier positioning in each market we serve, and today marks another step toward that goal,” said Stantec’s Scott Murray, leader of the firm’s Eastern U.S. region, in a news release. “With these companies joining our team, we will continue to expand our environmental services across North America and increase the opportunities to serve communities throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.”
Because Stantec is a publicly traded company, it will buy out 100 percent of WEG stocks, which are owned 80 percent by the company’s partners and 20 percent by 11 other stockholders.
The merger between companies is anticipated to be complete by the end of January.