Consulting Firm Bought

Moving to strengthen its ability to serve an increasingly global business community, Coldwell Banker Relocation Services Inc. said Wednesday it has acquired a Chicago-based cultural training and consulting business.

Stephen C. Roney, president and chief executive of Coldwell Banker Relocation said the company’s purchase of Bennett and Associates Inc. will enable it to provide multinational corporations with a full range of services to help their employees live and conduct business in foreign countries.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Bennett Associates, which provides services to more than 80 multinational corporations, will remain in Chicago and continue operating under its present management and name as a unit of Coldwell Banker Relocation, Roney said.

The Chicago company’s staff and contract specialists train employees to adapt to cultural differences before they leave for international assignments and after they have taken up residence in foreign countries.

Coldwell Banker Relocation, started in 1965, has about 1,000 employees at corporate and western regional offices in Mission Viejo, and at regional offices in Chicago; Norwalk, Conn.; London and Brussels.

The relocation business is a subsidiary of HFS Inc., which has more than 5,300 hotel franchises and more than 11,200 franchised Coldwell Banker, Century 21 and ERA residential real estate brokerage offices around the world.