Top Scottish dealmaker reveals plans for new acquisitions
Scottish company ‘retained identity, culture and fierce independence’ (Image: McAteer Photograph)
As seen in The Herald
A Scottish business leader who helped seal some of Scotland’s biggest deals tells how his company retained its identity, culture and “fierce independence” after a game-changing partnership.
He has helped deliver large-scale developments including Eurocentral, Glasgow Business Park and Clyde Gateway.
Now Alan Gilkison is paving the way for more acquisitions following the new partnership between Ryden and Lambert Smith Hampton.
Business name:
Ryden
Location:
Headquartered in Edinburgh with additional offices in Glasgow and Aberdeen while servicing clients across all of Scotland and now with a genuine UK reach.
Business Description:
Ryden is one of the largest independent commercial property consultancies headquartered in Scotland. Founded in 1959, Ryden is an independent LLP within the LSH (Lambert Smith Hampton) Group of Companies.
Ryden is a partnership owned and run by property experts advising on the lifecycle of properties from development to completion as well as delivering occupational and investment services.
To whom do you sell?
Ryden’s expert teams help investors, developers, owners and occupiers get the best from their property assets.
How many employees?
132
What is the turnover?
£14.1 million
Why did you take the plunge?
Family friends were working in real estate and it appealed to me as an attractive career so I went to university to study Land Economics, and graduated from University of the West of Scotland.
What were you doing before?
After university I was a Graduate Surveyor with a Scottish firm for just over a year before joining Ryden in 1994 and I was appointed Managing Partner in 2022.
What do you least enjoy?
I do genuinely love my job but some might say that I care too much and I take my work home with me. It’s an industry that’s been very good to me and to many people that I know but it is a job that demands a lot. I do find it difficult to switch off and I have been known to answer calls and emails while on holiday but I think we all do these days!
What are your ambitions for the firm?
We recently completed our first official year of our strategic partnership agreement with LSH. The first year was largely about the nuts and bolts of bringing the businesses together. There was a lot of change to manage, systems to bed in and people to support while preparing for our next phase of development.
Ryden is now ideally positioned to flourish and there is a bright future ahead through which we will keep our distinct culture and friendships and add quite a few more along the way. I'd like this year to be one where we're making regular announcements about new recruits, acquisitions and business growth as we go from strength to strength.
What single thing would most help?
The UK has become very slow at delivering major infrastructure projects and in Scotland there are a number of significant projects that are currently being held up through government processes. Often we find ourselves going in circles. If some of those schemes were given the green light, it would make a dramatic difference to the market.
Planning is obviously an important safeguard. You want proper regulation, you want people to be safe and you want the environment to be protected. But somewhere between those objectives and actually delivering projects, we've become stagnant.
You only have to look at major infrastructure elsewhere in Europe, the Øresund Bridge between Denmark and Sweden or tunnels through the Alps, to see what's possible. We seem to be making it much harder than it needs to be in Scotland.
What is the most valuable lesson you have learned?
I'd probably say listening to people and trying to understand their perspective.
I think I'm a fairly empathetic person. Whether it's colleagues or clients, I always try to understand what they're trying to achieve and find solutions that work for them.
I believe that's how you build lasting relationships, retain good people and deliver the best outcomes.
Throughout the LSH integration communication has been so important. You can never communicate too much during a period of change. As leaders, you sometimes feel you've explained everything that's happening, but then you receive feedback that tells you people still have questions or concerns. When a business is busy and moving quickly, it's tempting to focus on delivery, but it's equally important to stop and explain what's happening. Nobody likes feeling they're being left in the dark.
A huge amount of my time over the past year has been spent meeting people one-to-one and making sure they're comfortable with the direction we're taking.
What was your best moment?
I have a terrible habit of constantly looking forward and forgetting to reflect on the more significant moments, but I’m grateful there have been lots of things that have given me satisfaction over the years. The majority of my career has been in the Industrial and Logistics market and I was involved in the delivery of Eurocentral as well as Glasgow Business Park and Clyde Gateway to name a few. Advising Patrizia on the acquisition of Hillington in 2014 was also huge.
Very intense in the delivery phase but I learned a lot and we are still advising on Hillington today. But for something a little different it has to be advising Glenmorangie on the acquisition of the Ardbeg distillery on Islay. Seeing a mothballed ruin brought back to life and the joy it brings people from all over the world gives me a lot of satisfaction every time I visit. Islay is now a very special place for our family.
More recently though, I’m incredibly proud to have been Managing Partner for Ryden, playing an integral role amidst the strategic investment from LSH. Last year (24/25) was our best ever year and our first year with LSH (25/26) we were on par, while improving our profit by 7%. But equally as important, we’ve retained our Ryden identity, culture and fierce independence.
What was your worst moment?
On reflection, the best and worst times of my career were probably wrapped up in the LSH strategic partnership. It was mentally and physically exhausting and I put in long hours supported by some amazing colleagues over many months and it was difficult at times to see the wood for the trees. Stress was definitely cranked up to 11 and I really appreciated the support and care shown by my partners during some of the most difficult phases.
When we closed I was physically spent and perhaps I still haven't gained a full perspective on what was achieved and what I learnt about business and people. Looking back, for me, it probably represented a transition from being a surveyor with management responsibilities to a Managing Partner with a wider business knowledge and focus.
How do you relax?
I’m a very active person, play several sports and thankfully my family including my two sons are similar so we regularly enjoy a sporting or active holiday together. I enjoy running, cycling, sailing and skiing, and even better if it involves being in the mountains or on the water.
