URQUHART Partnership (UP) Holding, the Aberdeen-based recruitment specialist, has sanctioned its biggest-ever investment by acquiring brand and design agency Hampton Associates.
The seven-figure deal effectively brings three companies under one roof - UP, Tide Studio and Hampton - allowing the enlarged group to offer services ranging from human resources, recruitment and training to brand consultancy, digital and graphic design, and events management.
UP expects the combined group to turn over £5 million in the first 12 months, which would mark a £750,000 hike on the same period last year.
It also plans to hire a further member of staff before the end of the year, adding to its existing 40-strong workforce.
Each of the three companies will retain their individual trading identities.
UP managing director Campbell Urquhart said: "We genuinely see this deal as equally beneficial for all three businesses involved.
"We are a much stronger entity as a result of this transaction, offering our clients easier, and more efficient, access to a wide range of diverse, and yet related, services."
UP and Hampton Associates, which have worked together for more than 15 years, opened talks over the deal in September. This came after UP had completed its acquisition of DEER Digital, which has since been rebranded Tide Studio.
Hampton managing director Mike Hampton will remain with the business as a non-executive director, with Hampton's Scott Hunter becoming creative director at the enlarged group.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article