DRAC Consulting MBO: what the Wales-backed deal means for MEP project teams
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
A seven-figure equity injection from the Development Bank of Wales’ Wales Business Succession Fund has financed a management buy-out of Cardiff-based DRAC Consulting, securing 20 building services engineering jobs. The deal transfers ownership to 34-year-old managing director Lewis Doherty, a former junior electrical engineer and son of co-founder Carl Bassett, with SME Finance Partners’ Chris Thomas becoming non-executive chair. Founded in 2009, DRAC delivers mechanical, electrical and public health (MEP) design and supervision for local authorities, housing associations, health boards and private developers.
Technical Brief
- Ownership transition keeps both founders, Carl Bassett and Russell Williams, in post as directors for continuity of technical governance.
- DRAC’s core workload is MEP design and site supervision, directly affecting plantroom layouts, riser coordination and services clash risk.
- Public sector client base (local authorities, housing associations, health boards) implies regular work on tightly budgeted frameworks and refurbishments.
- Continuity of the existing 20-strong engineering team preserves project memory on live schemes and long-term asset portfolios.
- Non-executive chair Chris Thomas, SME Finance Partners, remains focused on transaction structuring rather than day-to-day technical delivery.
- Founded in 2009, the consultancy has operated through multiple procurement cycles, giving experience with evolving Part L and healthcare standards.
- For contractors and developers, stable MEP consultancy ownership reduces design-resourcing risk on multi-year building and refurbishment programmes.
Our Take
Within our 486 Infrastructure stories, Wales appears far less frequently than English regions, so DRAC Consulting’s MBO signals one of the relatively few sizeable, locally backed engineering consultancies anchoring capability in Cardiff.
The involvement of the Development Bank of Wales and the Wales Business Succession Fund aligns with other UK regional finance interventions in our database, where seven‑figure deals are often used to stabilise specialist consultancies ahead of a generational handover rather than to fund rapid expansion.
Protecting 20 skilled roles in a Cardiff-based M&E consultancy is strategically significant for Welsh infrastructure delivery, as regional public and private projects increasingly depend on local design capacity to meet procurement requirements favouring in‑territory expertise.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
Related Articles
Related Industries & Products
Construction
Quality control software for construction companies with material testing, batch tracking, and compliance management.
Mining
Geotechnical software solutions for mining operations including CMRR analysis, hydrogeological testing, and data management.
CMRR-io
Streamline coal mine roof stability assessments with our cloud-based CMRR software featuring automated calculations, multi-scenario analysis, and collaborative workflows.
HYDROGEO-io
Comprehensive hydrogeological testing platform for managing, analysing, and reporting on packer tests, lugeon values, and hydraulic conductivity assessments.
GEODB-io
Centralised geotechnical data management solution for storing, accessing, and analysing all your site investigation and material testing data.