Company acquires engineering firm

Company acquires engineering firm

Allen Reilly, left, a co-founder of Horizon Environmental in Grand Rapids, and John Lee, president and CEO of Barr, shake hands on Barr's acquisition of Horizon Environmental. Courtesy Barr

A local engineering firm has been acquired by a company in Minnesota.

Barr Engineering Company in Minneapolis, an engineering and environmental consulting firm, said today that it has acquired Horizon Environmental in Grand Rapids, an environmental engineering consulting firm.

“We are pleased to join forces with Horizon and by doing so provide increased staff capacity and technical expertise for our clients in Michigan and throughout the region,” said John Lee, president and CEO, Barr.

Horizon Environmental was founded in 1994 and has 30 employees.

Allen Reilly, a co-founder of Horizon Environmental, said the firm has been looking to merge with another firm to help serve a growing list of clients across the country.

Both companies have employee ownership.

“It was important to us that the firm we joined offers a broad range of environmental and engineering services, as well as a culture and commitment to client service comparable to our own,” Reilly said.

Barr, which has had an office in Ann Arbor since 1996, has worked with Horizon on several projects during the last two years.

“We’ve seen that Horizon’s engineers and scientists bring to projects a thorough understanding of state and federal regulations, as well as an ability to develop sound technical solutions to complex environmental problems, and our clients appreciate that,” Lee said.

Barr was founded in 1966 and has about 800 employees in offices in Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota and Alberta, Canada.