JMS acquire Abacus Design Associates

When MD Daniel Staines started JMS in Suffolk twenty-two years ago, he always had plans to expand his innovative brand of structural, civil and construction engineering solutions to a national scale. In the last two years alone, he and his team have  doubled their turnover and added five new offices. With fifty skilled staff spread over ten offices throughout the country, JMS are well placed to support the many large-scale construction projects currently taking place throughout the UK’s towns and cities

Established in 1997, Abacus Design Associates Ltd has grown into a well-established structural and civil engineering consultancy in the East Midlands. Formed by Jerry Gilbert, the company has considerable experience working with every imaginable type of building. Within the last few years, work has included a 43rd floor penthouse balcony, assessing Europe’s largest colliery headstocks, remedial details for a castle causeway, a 75m multi-span conveyor bridge, hundreds of inspections including assessment of scour-affected bridges and fire-affected buildings, as well as regular work designing house foundations and superstructure, apartments, large portal frames and many more. Projects across Derby, Nottingham, Loughborough, Leicester and beyond mean that Abacus Design Associates has acquired extensive local knowledge and contacts.

To build upon this success and maintain the underlying philosophy of focusing on our clients and the results they need, in February 2019 JMS acquired Abacus Design Associates, providing additional resources and geographic coverage. As part of this transition, the company has re-named to JMS Abacus Ltd. Jerry Gilbert continues to work actively as a consultant and engineer on projects, and Tim Aston, who has been with Abacus Design Associates since 2014, is Director and overseeing the future direction and development of the company as part of the JMS Group.

Daniel comments; “Our regional offices are vital to our success, because that means we have got skilled people on hand, with local knowledge and understanding. Which is why we are delighted to welcome Abacus into the JMS family. They are going to be a key part of some very big projects we have lined up in the Midlands. In particular, their local knowledge and supplier networks are going to be a vital support to our Nuneaton and Leicester offices.”

East Anglian innovation

Whilst JMS are involved in some of the biggest civil and structural engineering projects throughout the country, it is at their head office in Brightwell where they come up with the creative ways to help their staff do their jobs more effectively.

“We have developed a bespoke ProTrack cloud-based project management and reporting system to support our people. This allows our project teams to have more time on the sites, where they can be face to face with clients and other project collaborators. It makes such a huge difference to our client relationships, and this technology is great for motivating our staff.”

An SME with national coverage

And with major investment in improvements to the roads, buildings and layout of Leicester and the surrounding area, it looks like JMS are going to be busy there for a long time to come.

“We have so many projects lined up in the Midlands that we are expecting our phenomenal growth to continue for the foreseeable future. It is an exciting time in the construction industry. We have been involved in many projects throughout Suffolk over the years, including the Ipswich tidal flood barrier, but we are proud to show the rest of the county that local businesses can expand and compete at a national level. When I started out in the mid-90s, I was working from my spare room, but we have grown every year since then, and now we have got the reach to assist with major projects throughout the UK. It has been an exciting few years, and it looks like things are only going to get better.”

For further information visit the JMS Group website