Woodhead goes under after merger
Adelaide-based international architecture firm, Woodhead, is in receivership after its takeover earlier this week by engineering firm by GHD.
The acquisition of Woodhead by GHD was announced in a press release on Wednesday.
Within hours the doors were shut at Woodhead’s Chesser St offices.
On Friday afternoon valuers from Gray’s Online auction house were onsite valuing what was left of the furniture and fittings.
“HBL Mann Judd have been appointed receivers and we’re here just assessing what’s left”, a Gray’s employee told InDaily.
Today the Australian Financial Review reported Woodhead staff were unsure of their future.
Wednesday’s press release from GHD said the merger would be “a natural extension of a long-standing history of collaboration.”
“We are delighted to welcome Woodhead people to the GHD family,” Phil Duthie, GHD’s General Manager for Australia and New Zealand said.
Angelo Di Marco, Managing Director of Woodhead was also quoted in the release, saying; “The union reinforces a shared vision that design is a collaborative and integrated process, at its heart. The union enriches the firm’s long history in the delivery of complex global projects.”
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InDaily understand some Woodhead staff have been made redundant, while others remain uncertain whether the remaining corporate shell of Woodhead has the liquidity to pay their redundancies.
“They’re supposed to pay out redundancies,” one former Woodhead employee told the AFR.
“But all assets of the company are frozen. I think there’s going to be a lot of bad blood.”
Woohead started life in Adelaide in 1927 and in recent times has dominated architecture award categories.
