Liverpool-headquartered Sutcliffe, a civil and structural engineering and building surveying consultancy, has secured long-term investment from Venn, a new buy-and-build group assembling built environment consultancies across the UK. The deal makes the 70-person firm a cornerstone of that national group and backs a plan to lift turnover above £10 million within three years.

Founded in Liverpool in 1985 around structural engineering, Sutcliffe designs around 5,000 homes a year and works across housing, healthcare, education and commercial development. It operates from Liverpool, Manchester, North Wales, London and the Midlands.

Sutcliffe’s annual income is about £6.5 million, so the target of more than £10 million implies growth of at least 54 per cent over three years, which the firm says it will pursue through steady organic growth.

Venn was founded in 2024 by Johannes Huttunen, a former partner at HIG Capital with more than 20 years’ experience investing in and developing UK businesses. It aims to combine built environment consultancies while leaving their technical expertise, management and local relationships in place.

Chief executive Sean Keyes said: “The demand on our industry isn’t going away. The country needs more homes, better schools and hospitals, and the engineers, surveyors, planners and skilled trades needed to deliver them.”

Keyes added: “This partnership gives us the long-term backing to build on what we have achieved over the last 40 years.” He continued: “We are the same firm, with the same people and the same values.”

Venn founder and chief executive Johannes Huttunen said: “Engineering services for the built environment are being reshaped by the need for new homes, tighter regulation and the drive for greater energy efficiency.”

Huttunen added: “The businesses best placed to respond are those combining deep technical expertise with strong client and local relationships.”

The structural driver is the combination of new-homes demand, tighter regulation and the drive for energy efficiency reshaping engineering services for the built environment. For the sector, Sutcliffe’s training pledge, which commits it to developing a further 40 engineers and surveyors over a decade through apprenticeship and graduate routes, sits alongside the investment.

Source: goodnewsliverpool.co.uk / linkedin.com / lbndaily.co.uk / placenorthwest.co.uk / sutcliffe.co.uk