Diamond & Company (Scotland) Limited acquires S. Brooker & Associates

The new business will be known as Brooker Diamond Fire Engineering and based out of the successful chartered building survey practice located in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire.

Diamond & Company (Scotland) is a specialist firm of chartered surveyors providing full building consultancy services across various sectors throughout the built environment. Having started as a niche business also concentrating on energy consultancy, the company grew to become an established general building surveying consultancy.

Today, the business specialises in EWS-1 Form surveys and certification (options A and B), external cladding, building surveys, energy consultancy and retrofit co-ordination in accordance with PAS 2035, in addition to statutory compliance.

With offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh as well as Cumbernauld, the company’s full end-to-end retrofit service covers Path A, B and C projects in conventional, high-rise and traditional buildings.

The acquisition of the Linlithgow-based S. Brooker & Associates fire engineering consultancy strengthens Diamond & Company (Scotland) Limited’s chartered fire engineering capability, while also supplementing its available resource in the cladding and fire remediation spheres.

Growth plans

Along with shareholder and director Craig Alexander Rattray, managing director Philip Diamond founded Diamond & Company (Scotland) Limited back in December 2019 after more than 20 years as a sole trader.

This latest move is part of the firm’s growth plans as it targets expansion into the wider UK market, with a London office providing both services due to open at the end of February.

“I’m delighted to conclude this strategic acquisition at what is a very important time for the industry,” explained Philip Diamond in conversation with Fire Safety Matters. “The ability to combine building surveying skills with those of the chartered fire engineering discipline is huge in the current market.”

He continued: “I’m also pleased that we have an extension to our bespoke Professional Indemnity Insurance policy covering both the chartered fire engineering and chartered building surveying sides of the business. This adds an additional dimension to our services and heralds the beginning of an exciting phase of growth with a number of major projects already in the pipeline.”

In conclusion, Diamond observed: “We are one of the leading chartered building surveyors in Scotland. This acquisition not only strengthens that position, but also provides an ideal platform as we look to move into the marketplace in England and elsewhere in the UK with our range of professional services.”

Great opportunity

A Glasgow-based growth strategist, Craig Alexander Rattray is also Diamond & Company (Scotland) Limited’s finance director and negotiated and structured the transaction on behalf of the company.

Steve Brooker, who established S. Brooker and Associates more than 30 years ago, has been a Chartered Fire Engineer for almost 20 years now and takes up the position of director of fire engineering for the new business.

Brooker commented: “This was a great opportunity for us to merge with an experienced firm of building professionals in order to provide a turnkey solution for surveying and fire engineering.”