Strategy
Dalkia UK (previously: Imtech), a technical engineering and energy services group (c.£420m turnover), owned by EDF Energy, acquired the UK operations of SPIE (c.£200m turnover with 1,800 employees) in December 2022. This acquisition promoted Dalkia UK to a top 10 player in their market by size, necessitating a successful integration programme and careful strategic planning to leverage their new position.
Forvis Mazars partnered with Dalkia UK on a 10-month transformation programme, comprising a successful carve-out of SPIE UK from its French parent, the integration of SPIE UK as a business unit within the Dalkia UK group, a restructure of all group support functions, and a rebrand of all business units in the group to come under the Dalkia brand. Forvis Mazars successfully supported the company, taking on the role of both trusted, strategic advisors and agile implementation partners.
Our senior-led team partnered closely with Dalkia’s leadership throughout the lifecycle of the engagement. Forvis Mazars held one-to-one interviews with all senior leaders and Board members at the start of the project and facilitated off-site vision-setting and strategic planning workshops with this team. Forvis Mazars designed and mobilised a structured integration management office (IMO) to plan and implement key strategic initiatives spanning 8 workstreams.
Forvis Mazars was deeply involved in the planning and execution of all integration elements, most notably the full-scale rebranding of the group’s five business units and the delivery of cascaded, transparent communications to c.4,000 employees.
Our focus from the outset was to become part of our client’s team and as such we spent a lot of time with the leaders at the outset of the project, understanding their vision and ambitions and the ways that they work. With this knowledge, we tailored our approaches and methodologies accordingly. This personalised approach meant that we integrated into their team effectively.
The key milestone in the programme was ‘Rebrand Day 1’ and this was met on time and on budget – with 8 workstreams of activity and a 7-month lead time this was a huge effort and a significant success.
We focussed our approach on people-led change, which was critical when planning for changes that would impact c 4,000 staff. Our approach to working with the client’s business development teams set us apart in the pitch and we held several facilitated workshops to bring together their client-facing teams and equip them for the rebrand. The approaches to cultural integration and bringing together people from across the group has had lasting impacts on the organisation, with larger, more valuable contracts being more likely to be won as a result of improved cross-business unit working and collaboration.
We believe that the delivery of this programme demonstrated our ability to adapt our approaches to client needs, to strategically challenge and positively influence the design and execution of the programme and to deliver the objectives of the original business case for the acquisition whilst creating a long-lasting client partnership.
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