companies - Nelson

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GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 8 OF 26

companies

Mufson: Eminence Capital, NYC

NELSON Acquires Mufson And … by Brad Powell NELSON, like FXFOWLE, is intent on shouting out its name and, truly, both firms have something to shout about. The former, NELSON, with annual revenues in the range of $60 million, is an interiors firm – and then some, describing itself as a global interior design, architecture, engineering, strategies, workplace services and information services firm – that was founded by interior designer John Nelson, Sr. and is now led by John “Ozzie” Nelson, Jr. Mr. Nelson, Sr., has been so successful that he is now able to dedicate himself to that which he loves, interior design. Ozzie Nelson is trained as a businessman and has an MBA.

Larry Mufson, Ozzie Nelson and Ed Von Sover

Founded in 1977, NELSON has more than 30 offices internationally and annual revenues of around $60 million, with significant growth attributable to acquisitions and mergers. Mufson, a New York City interior design practice, is the most recent merger and, with around 50 employees, boosts NELSON’s NYC presence to over 80 people. Founded 21 years ago by Larry Mufson (designer) and Ed von Sover (project manager), Mufson has generated around $17 million in annual revenues. Local leadership will be provided by Mr. Mufson and Mr. von Sover, who will be Managing Principals of the New York operations. In addition, Mufson Principals Julia Belkin and Stan Judovits will continue with the firm in their respective roles of business development and project management. Ozzie Nelson is a busy acquisitions guy with 20 under his belt. According to him, he has spoken with most small- to medium-sized firms looking for complementary practices with compatible cultures. NELSON has strength with large clients – Bank America, Citigroup and HSBC in the NYC area and, generally, with more than 20% of the Fortune 100 – and is always looking to expand geographically, in vertical markets and in breadth of services. NELSON’s presence in the NYC market has been relatively small. About seven years ago, NELSON acquired Furnstahl & Simon Architects in NYC; with Mufson, the NYC office will be the largest of this firm’s many offices.

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companies “This merger does a couple of things,” said Mr. Nelson. “Being our largest office makes us a player in New York. With our previous NYC acquisitions, we had a host of corporate accounts with 30 people working on them; but we had no local work. Larry and Ed now have a larger corporation message with the expertise to back it up.” The Mufson partners have a strong presence in the financial boutique market, not large clients, but small clients with a lot of money and a very demanding approach to business, such as hedge funds and related businesses. Landlord pre-builds and build-outs also constitute a significant portion of their business. A satisfying practice, said Mr. Mufson, but “we were missing too many opportunities with larger clients, who typically want the security and bench strength of a larger firm.” “I have built my career on the understanding that no two clients, designs or budgets are alike,” said Mr. Mufson. “Our goal never changes. We want to create smart, imaginative design that interprets corporate images and enhances functionality. NELSON shares the same approach, and I am confident that our teams will merge quickly in a spirit of true collaboration. The resulting creative energy will benefit our clients by launching something new that is better than what either of us has accomplished on our own. We are now a true single-source solution for companies and building owners in and around New York.” “What excites me most about the combination of Mufson and NELSON,” said Mr. von Sover, “is the potential for us to build on our exceptional records for project design and delivery. No one is better than NELSON at delivering creative, consistent services for accounts across multiple locations, and no one beats Mufson in design, facility management, budgeting and scheduling for local clients. Putting our years of experience together

will quickly lead to even greater improvements and new efficiencies that can be delivered directly to our clients practically from day one.” It’s been a busy year for Mr. Nelson with four acquisitions during the first 100 days. The first, in early January,

Mufson: Sanders Capital, NYC

Mufson: Altegrity, NYC

was a large engineering firm, Brinjac Engineering. “Before, we had some MEP,” said Mr. Nelson, “but now about 20% of what we do is engineering. Brinjac has MEP, structural, civil, fire protection and lighting design. It allows us to integrate with other disciplines,


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companies such as lighting design. We do think it’s about integration. A mechanical engineer isn’t a designer and viceversa, but we want to work very closely to bring a product that has a lot of integration. Based in Harrisburg, PA, Brinjac Engineering’s capabilities will be rolled out to all of our offices by the end of 2015.”

The second acquisition this year was of a small firm in Minneapolis, WCL Interiors, Inc. Founded in 1996 by Harold Ness and David Silus, its primary work has been in the area of tenant leasehold improvement planning and building area management for commercial office and industrial buildings. The firm had been doing around $1 million

Brinjac Engineering: Pepsico Office, Dallas

RipBang: Identity & Signage For Amway Center

in annual revenue; this, when added to the existing presence in Minneapolis, brings the annual revenue to around $5 million. “Take away the costs of the small firm infrastructure,” said Mr. Nelson, “and the Minneapolis office, incrementally, becomes some of the most profitable business we’ll do. Plus, it allows us to move into areas such as office warehouse, and it expands the tenant relationships that we were looking for in that market much faster than we think we could organically. “We’ll continue to look for these opportunities in cities that we already exist in, with partners who do it for a variety of reasons, whether they want to be part of a larger organization or they’re going to be retiring in two to three years and want to maximize their value over that period of time.” The third acquisition this year was RipBang Environmental Branding and Graphics, which works with many sporting facilities. For example, it just completed four restaurants for the Anaheim Angels in space that was previously used for press boxes. “The firm is now very excited about starting to integrate that with corporate branding,” said Mr. Nelson, “and we’ve already started to win some pretty significant assignments together where we can break into new building environments.” Then finally, Mufson. “It’s been a blur of a hundred days,” said Mr. Nelson, “but these are very exciting times as we round off our services. For a long time, we have been looking for the right partner in New York because if you do the corporate work, the client eventually always asks, ‘What are you doing locally?’ And if you’re working locally, the big client says, ‘Well it’s nice that you do hedge funds, but have you ever worked for any of the big banks?’ We think that the synergy together, both in terms of the town and the message to the market, is important.” 