Eddisons expands further as parent makes double acquisition
Begbies Traynor, a financial and real estate advisory firm, has acquired Kirkby Diamond LLP and Kirkby Diamond Property Management Ltd - trading collectively as Kirkby Diamond - for up to £8.25 million. Kirkby Diamond will integrate with Eddisons, the group's real estate advisory and transactional services division.
Kirkby Diamond is a well-respected and successful regional real estate consultancy with offices in Milton Keynes, Bedford, Luton, St Albans, and Enfield, all of which are new locations for the combined business.
It employs 62 staff, all of whom are joining the revised group.This acquisition extends Eddisons' strategic footprint to cover the entire M1 corridor, and aligns with the parent company's strategy to strengthen its service offering and expand its market coverage.
In its financial year ended 31 January 2025, Kirkby Diamond generated revenue of £6.2m and had normalised pre-tax profits of £1.1m (when reported on the same basis as the group). Trading is projected to remain at this level in the current financial year. At 31 January 2025, Kirkby Diamond had consolidated net assets of £1.4m (including £0.95m net cash).
Begbies Traynor said its overall strategy is to increase the scale and quality of its businesses, both organically and through value-accretive acquisitions, thereby delivering strong, sustainable financial performance.
Since the creation of the division through the acquisition of Eddisons in December 2014, the group has built a strong track record of acquisitions that have met these criteria. This strategy has increased the scale of the division, which following this acquisition will have an annualised run rate revenue in excess of £50m, whilst demonstrating both resilience of earnings in a challenging economic environment, and delivering strong growth and profitability.
Anthony Spencer, Managing Director of Eddisons, commented: "The acquisition significantly strengthens our geographical coverage and expertise, consolidating our market position in key industrial locations. Kirkby Diamond is a great fit with Eddisons, culturally and strategically, and I look forward to taking forward the growth opportunities that the deal presents."
Luke Tillison, Managing Director of Kirkby Diamond, commented: "Through the quality of our people Kirkby Diamond has built a reputation for placing our clients' interests at the forefront of everything we do. We are excited to be joining Eddisons and the opportunity to develop our offering on a broader basis with like-minded colleagues."
In a separate announcement made just 24 hours earlier, Begbies Traynor Group revealed that Eddisons was expanding its property auction business through the acquisition of Network Auctions, a south east based property auctioneer.
The group will pay cash of up to £1m and The Network Auctions team of five will all join the expanded group following the deal.
Acting on behalf of a family trust, Eddisons has also just announced the successful exchange of contracts on an option agreement between the landowner and a leading national developer that means proposals for a new industrial/warehouse development in the key A1/A14 transport corridor can move forward to the next stage in 2026.
The option agreement amounts to land totalling 31 acres, of which the proposed commercial development comprising 480,000 sq ft of industrial/warehouse accommodation of mixed mid-box and a single larger unit will aim to target demand from local and regional operators.
A rigorous selection process, where Eddisons advised from the outset, saw the agent support the landowner in the final selection of a development partner with proven expertise and a track record of delivering high-quality schemes.
Eddisons has identified occupier-led companies and it will feed-in to the developer’s future strategy for the site which, given its location, has premium, UK-wide onward transport links.
