The 180-employee Devon contractor, which specialises in drainage, geospatial surveys and civil engineering, has been snapped up by the Goldman Sachs-owned Adler & Allan Group – a national operator focused on delivering utilities and infrastructure.

Glanville turned over around £31m last year, generating a pre-tax profit of nearly £4m.

The deal marks Adler & Allan’s ninth acquisition in just four years.

Since Goldman Sachs’ private equity arm took ownership in 2021, the Harrogate-headquartered group has been on a rapid growth drive, targeting firms across water, waste, remediation and environmental compliance.

Last reported turnover for the group in 2024 reached £217m, generating an operating profit of £15m and employing around 950 staff.

Adler & Allan chief executive Henrik Pedersen said: “This acquisition strengthens our position as a turnkey partner to the utilities sector with services from strategic environmental consultancy, data, insight, and analytics, and specialist engineering.”

Glanville’s latest accounts show net assets of just over £5m, with £10m in current assets and around £1.75m in the bank as of March 2024.

Adler & Allan, whose wider group revenue is understood to be nearing $750m globally, is using its Goldman Sachs backing to build a market-leading package of environmental services for UK infrastructure operators under pressure to meet tough ESG and pollution targets.