Hardies Chartered Surveyors has acquired Glasgow-based quantity surveying practice Storrier & Donaldson in a private transaction, expanding its cost management capacity in western Scotland as the surveying profession contends with persistent skills constraints.
The value and financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Storrier & Donaldson owner Robert Currie will join Hardies as consultant partner as part of the transaction, while the acquired team will relocate to the Glasgow city centre offices used by the affiliated Shepherd and Hardies surveying businesses.
Storrier & Donaldson has operated for more than 50 years and provides quantity surveying and cost management services across public and private-sector construction projects.
Its public-sector work has included hospital ward refurbishments, libraries, golf facilities, and major capital frameworks, while private-sector projects range from individual residential properties to larger commercial developments.
The practice also works on conservation, refurbishment, and new-build projects, including listed and historic properties and developments involving multiple funding sources. Those capabilities will be absorbed into Hardies’ existing quantity surveying operation.
Douglas Smith, managing partner at Hardies Chartered Surveyors, said: “This acquisition represents another important milestone in our growth strategy, bringing together two businesses with shared values, complementary expertise and a commitment to delivering exceptional client service.
“By combining our strengths, we will expand the range and scale of projects we can undertake while further enhancing the specialist services we provide to clients across Scotland and the wider UK.”
The acquisition deepens an existing Hardies presence in Glasgow rather than establishing a new operation. The company already has a quantity surveying team in the city and operates from offices on West Nile Street, alongside a wider national network spanning locations including Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Inverness, Leeds, London, Perth, and Stirling.
Hardies is affiliated with Shepherd Chartered Surveyors, giving the businesses a broader property and construction services network. The acquisition adds specialist cost-management capacity to that footprint at a point when project economics have become increasingly difficult to manage.
Construction clients are balancing labour shortages, financing constraints, materials inflation, regulatory requirements, and pressure to demonstrate value across public and private capital programmes. Quantity surveyors sit directly within those decisions, providing cost planning, procurement advice, contract management, valuations, and financial control as projects progress.
Robert Currie said: “We are delighted to become part of Hardies and bring with us extensive experience of working within multi-disciplinary design teams on conservation, refurbishment and new-build projects.
“Our expertise spans historical and listed buildings, as well as complex developments involving multiple funding streams. We look forward to continuing to provide robust cost management advice, helping clients and project teams achieve their financial objectives as part of the Hardies business.”
The combination also reflects a capacity challenge across the built-environment professions. RICS has repeatedly identified quantity surveying as one of the areas most affected by skills shortages, with its research showing employers reporting reduced work capacity, higher costs, and lost commercial opportunities where appropriate expertise cannot be recruited.
In Scotland, the issue is particularly relevant to government ambitions around housing, infrastructure, energy, and the refurbishment of existing buildings. Skills Development Scotland estimates that the wider construction sector will require at least 10,000 additional workers by 2028, while RICS has warned that shortages in surveying could constrain delivery.
Adding an established team through acquisition gives Hardies an alternative to relying entirely on external recruitment. Experienced surveyors bring existing project knowledge and client relationships as well as technical capacity, allowing the acquiring business to expand more quickly than if it built the same capability one employee at a time.
That can be particularly valuable in quantity surveying because senior staff often manage complex commercial relationships across project lifecycles. Retaining client continuity after a transaction can determine whether an acquisition creates durable additional revenue or simply expands overhead.
The decision to bring Currie into the enlarged business as consultant partner provides a mechanism for retaining that continuity while Storrier & Donaldson’s staff and projects are integrated.
Hardies has also been expanding its Glasgow quantity surveying operation through recruitment. The company appointed Casey Boyne as an associate in the city during 2025, bringing experience across infrastructure, energy, industrial, housing, rail, and other construction segments.
Ian Fergusson, senior partner at Shepherd and Hardies, said: “This acquisition is strategically significant for our business and will substantially strengthen our Quantity Surveying and Cost Management offering across Glasgow and the west of Scotland.
“It reflects our ongoing commitment to growth and investment, while enhancing our ability to support clients with specialist expertise throughout the UK. We are delighted to welcome Robert and his team to Hardies and look forward to building on the strong reputation and relationships they have established over many years.”
The transaction arrives during an uneven period for Scottish construction. RICS’ latest construction monitoring showed overall workloads broadly stagnant during the second quarter of 2026, while infrastructure activity strengthened. That divergence increases the importance of sector mix for professional-services businesses serving the market.
Infrastructure, public works, refurbishment, housing, commercial property, and energy projects each have different procurement cycles and funding pressures. A surveying practice with a wider range of project experience can spread its exposure while transferring staff between sectors as workloads change.
Storrier & Donaldson’s public-sector and conservation experience adds areas where cost control can be particularly complex. Existing buildings often produce uncertainties that are less pronounced in straightforward new construction, while publicly funded projects face formal procurement requirements and scrutiny over budgets.
Multiple funding streams create another layer of administration because expenditure may need to satisfy different conditions, timetables, and reporting requirements. Combining those skills with Hardies’ wider service network gives the enlarged operation greater scope to support more complex commissions.
The deal is also another example of consolidation among smaller professional-services practices where succession, recruitment, technology investment, and increasing compliance demands can favour larger networks. Specialist local businesses can retain their client relationships and expertise while gaining access to broader back-office, recruitment, training, and business-development resources.
Scale does not remove the importance of local knowledge in surveying, particularly where planning, property conditions, procurement markets, and contractor relationships differ substantially between regions. Hardies’ approach keeps the Storrier & Donaldson team in Glasgow while placing it inside a larger operating platform.
No targets for revenue, headcount, or further acquisitions have been disclosed as part of the transaction. The immediate effect is a larger quantity surveying and cost management operation in Glasgow and western Scotland, with Currie and his team continuing their work under the Hardies business.
Against a backdrop of constrained professional capacity and uneven construction workloads, the acquisition gives Hardies additional experienced staff and project capability without waiting for the surveying labour market to supply them organically.
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