SA design studios announce merger
Abeo Design needed architects and Studio Nine Architects needed designers – so the like-minded firms have decided to merge to help meet niche demand in an otherwise depressed market.
The interior of the Moseley Bar & Kitchen at Glenelg. Image: supplied.
The two businesses have collaborated in recent years on hospitality upgrades across Adelaide, including the refurbishment of the Gully Public House at Tea Tree Gully, the Woodcroft Hotel and the Dublin Hotel at Glenelg – rebranded as the Moseley Bar and Kitchen.
“We needed architects – we had more work than we could manage,” Abeo director Mandy Primett told InDaily.
“It’s a great problem [to have].”
Primett said Abeo and Studio Nine Architects had developed an unusually friendly relationship during the collaborations.
The Gully Public House. Photo: supplied
“We’d worked together for about three years … and had really enjoyed it.
“We were actually having a lot of fun and both companies were enjoying each other – which is unusual; our industry’s really quite competitive.
“Because we’d become quite close, we said, ‘Can we actually pick your brains, and grow, and meet the needs that we have?’”
Studio Nine Architects senior director Tony Zappia said each firm needed the skills offered by the other, and the merger would provide “stability” in difficult economic times.
“We’ve both got different skill sets which would be complementary,” he said.
“In a market where the economy is frail, it gives stability to both [firms] and our staff.”
He said Studio Nine had diversified its client base so that if, for example, “the hospitality sector is down, the apartments or aged-care sector market might be up”.
It has 21 employees while Abeo has 10.
Primett said the merger would not result in any job losses: “Nobody was ever going to lose their job – we need more staff”.
The Woodcroft Hotel. Photo: supplied
Launched at the height of the global financial crisis, Abeo Design has taken advantage of its after-effects.
“We actually set up our company in the GFC,” said Primett. “We started from a very low point.
“[But] we’ve been luckily placed, at the right time.
“It is a difficult market – we have never known it not to be a depressed market … [during difficult economic times] people don’t want to buy a new house so they renovate their house [instead]”.
The two firms will officially join forces in July.
