Courtesy / Sevee & Maher
Dan Diffin, VP and head of civil engineering at Sevee & Maher
Updated: September 30, 2022
Cumberland engineering firm acquires smaller Midwest peer
Sevee & Maher Engineers, a Cumberland-based civil and environmental engineering consulting firm with a growing geographic footprint, has acquired Bono Consulting Inc., based in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge.
The deal, whose financial details were not disclosed, will add 17 Bono Consulting employees, for a total of more than 80 at Sevee & Maher.
"SME is busy and we are excited to have them [Bono Consulting] on board," Dan Diffin, vice president and head of the firm's civil engineering group, told Mainebiz. "We offer a very competitive salary and compensation package that is quite attractive, so we anticipate employee retention will be strong."
The acquisition comes about a year after Sevee & Maher opened an office in Glen Ellyn, Ill., about 25 miles west of downtown Chicago. The firm also has offices in Atlanta and Phoenix.
Besides its main office in Park Ridge, Bono Consulting has offices in Naperville, Ill.; and Presque Isle, Wisc., with clients in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa, according to the firm's website.
Bono Consulting will keep is name and operate as a subsidiary of Sevee & Maher, which is making its first acquisition in four years. In 2018, the Cumberland company acquired Environmental Safety & Hygiene Associates, a Portland-area firm that offers consulting services for hazardous building materials.
Sevee & Maher was ranked No. 12 among Maine's largest engineering firms, in the 2022 Mainebiz Book of Lists., published in December 2021. Companies were ranked by the number of licensed engineers.
In Maine, the company's civil engineering portfolio includes redevelopment of the Bangor Savings Bank riverfront campus opened in 2019. Sevee & Maher also serves as town engineer to Cumberland, provides engineering design for stream crossing projects in Brunswick and Freeport; and has been involved in various stormwater management and coastal resilience projects for towns around the state.
The Cumberland firm has provided clients in the Midwest with environmental regulatory compliance services for several decades. More recently through the Glen Ellyn office opened last year, the company provides regulatory compliance and sustainability consulting for the food and beverage industry and supply chain.
"Our pipeline of projects in the Midwest has been growing rapidly," Diffin said. "The addition of BCI allows us to better serve our existing clients and access the regional market more fully for multiple SME sectors."
The two firms have already partnered on several renewable energy design and permitting projects in Illinois.
Asked how the deal to join forces came together, Diffin said his company started its search in the Chicago area based on an existing client's growing civil engineering needs, and was introduced to Bono through a business broker. SME and Bono then worked together on several solar development projects in Illinois before the acquisition.
"After working together on a few projects," he explained, "we felt there was a good chemistry between the two firms and shared a client-first philosophy that led us to think about a more formal partnership."
He also said that while Sevee & Maher doesn't have any additional acquisitions activity in the works, "we're always open to new opportunities to grow our business in a way that makes strategic sense."
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