First Consulting and Valcon join forces to form 500-strong group

Two leading players in North West Europe’s consulting scene – First Consulting and Valcon – have joined forces, in a deal backed by private equity group Waterland. The move establishes a group consisting of 520 consultants and staff in countries in the region.

First Consulting is a Netherlands-headquartered firm that has further offices in the UK and Germany. The firm’s 340 consultants specialise in helping organisations with improving their operations, digitisation and change, and focuses on clients in seven industry verticals: infrastructure, energy & utility, telecom, retail, manufacturing, financial services and government. 

The firm’s new partner, Valcon, is a Scandinavian operations consultancy. The firm has 180 professionals working from offices in Denmark and Sweden, and is member of Cordence Worldwide – with over 5,000 consultants in 25+ countries one of the globe’s largest networks of management consulting firms. Similarly, Valcon specialises in operations consulting, from strategy through to execution.

By merging – the companies will however continue under their own brand – the consultancies expect to reap a number of benefits, said their leaders. Geert van den Goor, Managing Partner of First Consulting and the newly appointed Managing Partner of the Group, pointed at scale and enrichment of offerings as a key deal drivers. 

“With our combined capabilities, we will to an even higher degree be able to offer our clients state-of-the-art solutions. We expect to see a fast development of both geographical footprint, capabilities and services within all areas.”

According to Consultancy.org’s database, First Consulting is one of the Netherland’s leading consulting firms in terms of track record, while Valcon ranks as a top 50 European player across a number of service areas, and a top employer domestically. 

Strategic ambitions

Van den Goor added that the move aligns with First Consulting’s strategy to “become a leading Northern West European consultancy by 2024.” Early 2019 the consulting firm attracted capital from investor Waterland to fuel its ambition, and the Valcon tie-up marks its second deal under the wings of the private equity firm – in October last year SmartRules was acquired. 

At the other side of the table, similar considerations came into play, explained Valcon’s Chairman Thomas Fischer. “For us, this is a powerful accelerator of our strategic ambition: It strengthens our ability to assist our clients across their transformational journeys, and it helps us to continue to attract and develop the best talent within operational transformation.” 

The bundling also gives Valcon access to a technology fundament – which First Consulting delivers through First Technology – which represents a “major development in our technological value proposition,” said Fischer. This includes the likes of robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, advanced data analytics and business intelligence, and internet of things. 

With the objective of growing towards 1,000 consultants by 2024, more deals are on the table. Indeed, “we expect additional leading companies to join us,” concluded Van den Goor. 

In related news, last year another leading Danish-origin consulting firm, Qvartz, merged into Bain & Company.