The next stage of expansion was to appoint Area Managers in other parts of England. Their role was one of business development and in addition to undertaking a technical secondment to a client they were involved with marketing to potential clients, recruitment and placing staff on secondment. There became an increased need for a recognised office from which to undertake consultancy work and in 1990 Dippen Hall near Lingfield Surrey was acquired. Early commissions usually involved Highways, Bridges or Traffic Engineering work. As the years went by one or two small consultancies were acquired, which increased the capacity of the Aspen in-house consultancy. By 1996 Aspen was 170 strong with 75% of the fee income being generated by the secondment operation, the other 25% being generated by the in-house consultancy. Services were being provided in many areas across England and the management structure had expanded. In November 1996 Aspen took over the UK interest of DHV Consultants, a multi-disciplinary multi-national Dutch based company. Some years earlier DHV had sought to get a foothold in the UK market and had acquired John Burrow & Partners and Trevor Crocker & Partners. In the early 90s like many other consultancies in the UK, DHV had started to struggle with market conditions and were looking to offload the UK part of the business so the deal with Aspen was struck. The DHV acquisition brought with it around 130 staff, based in several offices around the country including Solihull, Derby, Bristol, Cardiff and London Docklands. Overnight the Aspen Consulting Group, as it had now become known, became 300 strong and there was much more of a balance between the secondment operation, still known as Aspen Associates, and the consultancy operation, which was named Aspen Burrow Crocker. Over the following years, expansion continued. In 2000 Peter Stephen and Partners, an Edinburgh based Structural Engineering practise, joined the Aspen Consulting Group. That acquisition was used to launch the secondment operation in Scotland. By 2001 Aspen Consulting Group’s numbers had increased to around 400 and the majority of its services involved civil engineering and the client base was predominantly public sector. The next major change happened in December 2001 when the Aspen Consulting Group was acquired by the Waterman Group.
The enlarged Waterman Group became 1,150 strong. The business of Aspen Associates, re-badged as Waterman Aspen as a separate company within the Waterman Group, has continued in much the same way as it always had. Similarly the consultancy, re-badged Waterman Burrow Crocker (now Waterman Transport & Development), has continued to be the Group Company that provides civil and transportation consultancy services. Since 2001 expansion has continued to be the name of the game. Waterman Group has increased its activities worldwide and has become 1300 strong. Equally, Waterman Aspen has grown to 300 strong and has established itself as a key player within the Group and a key player within the secondment and outsourcing industry. |
Aspen Associates was founded in January 1988 in the South East of England. At that time the construction industry in the region was buoyant. The Channel Tunnel was being built and Atkins seconded staff to Kent County Council to help with workload peaks. Aspen Associates was formed with this same principle in mind and the first staff were recruited and seconded out. Aspen was now up and running. 
Waterman had been founded as a Structural Engineering practice in London in 1952. Its growth, both organically and by acquisition, had seen it become 750 strong by 2001. Their discipline was different to Aspen’s, as was the client base which was predominantly private sector. The Waterman Group was looking to diversify its discipline and client base to offset the risks of volatility associated with the private sector building industry. Hence the attraction of Aspen.