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Q&A with Paul Malir, TranSystems’ Newest Acquisition

TranSystems president Paul Malir.

Last week, architecture and engineering firm TranSystems continued its five-year growth plan to expand the company's workforce three-fold by way of the recent acquisition of Baltimore-based Whitney Bailey Cox & Magnani LLC (WBCM). Ingram's spoke with TranSystems president Paul Malir to capture national and regional updates on the firm's buildout.

Q: How long has TranSystem been in talks with this engineering firm WBCM and what are you looking for when acquiring a group like this? 

I would tell you that we are constantly on the look for great fits and I wouldn't be surprised if you see some more deals before the end of the year.

A: We have been engaged with WBCM for a little over a year now and making sure the cultural fit is right for us, that’s the number one priority for us on many of the deals we do. We’ve spent a lot of time on assessing that and having people on their team spending time with our leadership, we have found that to be a very successful formula. 

 

Q: WBCM is based in Baltimore, how does geographical location play a factor in your company’s growth and are there specific regions that show more promise?

A: Our first and foremost goal is to find skill sets and to find similar cultures to ours, if that comes with a certain geography that fits our map it’s just a benefit. We don’t mind combining acquisitions with our existing geography. If it helps us breach into a new market we see that it is just a huge benefit and that was precisely the case with WBCM. TranSystem had a hole in the market between New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the North Carolina area where we have operations and WBCM is filling the gap for us. They have multiple offices, some up in Pennsylvania and in Virginia and of course their main office up in Baltimore so it was a real win-win for us when looking at what this firm brings to the table. It now gives us the ability to bring some of our services to the clients that they couldn’t offer before in the Maryland markets as well as bring some of their capabilities to ours.

 

Q: TranSystems has said in the past that the company is looking to triple its workforce in the next five years. Is this plan still the main priority or has the company settled into a more comfortable position for now?

A: We are still full steam ahead, our owners are very interested in our very hot market. We own about 30 percent of the firm and they, our owners, own about 70. TranSystems definitely wants to continue growth and so do they. I would tell you that we are constantly on the look for great fits and I wouldn’t be surprised if you see some more deals before the end of the year.

 

Q: TranSystem has experienced so much expansion through its national footprint but how has the company seen growth internally? 

A: Our internal growth has been running at between 8 and 12 percent which is exceptionally significant as well. It’s been a nice combination of having some expansion through merger and acquisition as well as organic internal growth and that has created a lot of opportunities for us and our employees. Mainly in cross-boundary opportunities as more numbers of our employees can pursue new opportunities with new locations, it’s exciting. All of us have more synergy within the firm right now. 

 

Q: Can you elaborate on how these newly acquired firms in the past two years will directly affect the Kansas City metro area? 

A: In the Kansas City area it brings us amplified capabilities. This group in particular, WBCM, brings us an enhanced building-structural group that we can combine with ours. We at TranSystems do a lot of bridge work but it takes a different specialty to do building-structural and so now the architectural force is even better in this area. And so with that, I think that’s one of those opportunities that will hit the KC market. Some of the other capabilities WBCM has probably won’t affect the KC market as much, they also have an enhanced port capability in waterfront design for instance that we will take to all of our coastal cities. Those are just some of those synergies we look at when trying to make them plus us equal more than either one of us could do by ourselves. 

 

Q: What can we expect from TranSystem down the pike in terms of growth?

A: We are very robust in our transportation abilities and there is an awful lot of transportation spending around the country. We like many of our competitors are looking at those markets that are growing incredibly fast. The southeast region of the U.S. including the Sun Belt area runs all the way to California. Those states are exceedingly robust and we want to see growth in those as well.

Posted June 26, 2023.