CRANSTON forms strategic growth partnership with The HFW Companies

CRANSTON, an engineering, landscape architecture, planning, and surveying firm that has been serving Southeast communities for more than half a century, has formed a strategic growth partnership with The HFW Companies (HFW), a fast-growing professional services firm with a national focus on the architecture and engineering (AE) industry.

The new partnership will allow CRANSTON to accelerate its strategic vision for growth and expand even more aggressively throughout “the heart of the Southeast” with additional services, locations, and people, according to Scott Williams, PE, president of CRANSTON.

“This partnership with HFW will give CRANSTON a new platform on which to strengthen our presence in the communities we serve and across both Georgia and South Carolina,” Williams said, “while allowing us to forge ahead in growing the CRANSTON brand. We’re excited to align ourselves with HFW and its network of AE brands.”

CRANSTON employs 75 people and serves its project partners and communities from offices in Augusta, Ga., Charleston, S.C., and Hilton Head, S.C.

CRANSTON, in partnering with HFW, joins a growing network of growth-oriented AE firms whose teams will be able to share best practices, economies of scale, and unique areas of expertise, according to Michael Hein, AIA, chief executive officer of St. Louis-based HFW. HFW’s business model, he said, is designed to retain and leverage each partnering firm’s own brand identity, loyal employee base, and the allegiance of its project partners to build a nationwide “house of brands” network of member firms.

“CRANSTON’s brand legacy has such great long-term growth potential,” said Hein. “It aligns nicely with our own growth strategy of investing in architecture and engineering firms that serve metropolitan and infrastructure markets and are open to aligning with a partner for growth.”