Leading European consulting firms merge and rebrand as Valcon

Three leading consulting firms in their respective European markets – First Consulting, Viqtor Davis and Valcon Nordics – have merged to form an 800-strong consultancy with offices in six countries.

“Transitioning under one collective name is a logical step within the merger process,” says Geert van den Goor, managing partner of the new Valcon. “With this merger, we are able to create even more value for our clients: from operational strategy to processes, technology, data and people.”

The journey of the three consultancies commenced back in 2019 in the Netherlands, when private equity firm Waterland took a stake in First Consulting, one of the country’s fastest growing consulting firms. At the time, the two partners announced their ambition to build a pan-European consulting group.

The buy-and-build strategy kicked off with First Consulting’s 2019 acquisition of SmartRules, which lifted its headcount to 300. Late last year, Nordic strategic operations consultancy Valcon was added to the group, lifting headcount to 500. And in February this year, Viqtor Davis was bolted-on to the network, growing its ranks to over 800 professionals, while extending its digital transformation and data science capabilities.

By now joining forces under one brand, “Valcon has the scale to help our clients with projects and challenges of any size and complexity. We see a real need for a consulting company that offers scale, end-to-end solutions and a flexible approach all in one,” explains Michael Hjortlund, a senior partner at Valcon.

Services the group specialises in include: operations strategy, performance improvement, process engineering, change consultancy, technology capabilities such as low-code development, business process automation and robotisation, and data science and advanced analytics.

Meanwhile, the unified brand also prepares the firm for further growth. By 2024, Valcon wants to have grown into a North-western powerhouse of 1,500 consultants. “This merger is a first step in a broader journey. Valcon lays the basis for continued growth, both autonomous growth and mergers with other players in the market,” comments Adam Smith, managing partner of Valcon in the United Kingdom.

Valcon = Value Consulting

Asked why the firm opted to adopt the Valcon brand, Van den Goor says, “We decided on this new name with our pragmatic and no-nonsense approach: we thought it was a good name which suited the organisation as a whole, so why look for a completely new name?”

“Valcon stands for ‘Value Consulting’ – the aligns with vision that creating of value for clients should always be at the core of what we do.”

Valcon has operations in the Netherlands, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Croatia.