Strategic investment fuels solid growth for Turner & Townsend
CONTINUED investment has seen Yorkshire-based construction consultant Turner & Townsend boost its turnover by 12% to £357.4m.
The company, headquartered in Leeds, and which employs more than 3,660 staff across a global network of 87 offices, with 260 people in Yorkshire, has now recorded four successive years of growth – increasing turnover by 51% since 2011.
In the past year Turner & Townsend said its leadership consolidated these gains by expanding in existing markets – and entering new ones – as part of a global strategy to drive sustainable growth.
The company continued to invest in both its capability and reach throughout the year, opening eight new offices around the world and increasing staff numbers by 13%.
Revenue jumped by nearly half (46%) in the Middle East region, and by a third (33%) in Asia. In the UK, still the company’s largest market, revenue grew by 11% to £148m, with around 10% of that (£30m) in Yorkshire.
The company’s North American division grew revenue by 30% to £56m, and boosted its presence across the USA with the opening of new offices in Phoenix, Chicago and Seattle. New offices also opened for business in Colombia, Brazil, Germany, Mozambique and Indonesia.
The company recorded robust growth across all its core sectors – property, infrastructure and natural resources. Of the three, infrastructure was the star performer – with 21% annual growth propelling revenue to £91m.
Chairman Tim Wray said that looking ahead, the firm hopes to continue to grow at the same rate, roughly 12%/15%. “That of course brings with it its own challenges – we need the support to manage this growth, so we will look to increase numbers, including in Yorkshire.”
Wray added that the market is still fairly difficult in Yorkshire, which hasn’t achieved as much growth as other areas and which showed similar results in 2014 as it did in 2013. However, he said that he is confident that more projects are on the horizon.
Turner & Townsend’s CEO Vincent Clancy said: “After four years of uninterrupted growth, Turner & Townsend continues to deliver record turnover while building further momentum towards our long-term objectives.
“We have strengthened our market-leading position across our core sectors: property, infrastructure and natural resources.
“Our property team works for some of the world’s most iconic brands, and are engaged with several of them – Chevron, Nissan and Barclays – to transform the delivery of their global property programmes.
“Our infrastructure team scored a string of successes – winning a delivery management role on Australia’s largest public transport scheme and securing a three-year contract as sole provider of commercial and controls consultancy services at London’s Heathrow Airport. Turner & Townsend is now established as a global leader in the aviation sector, and is working on five major airport programmes in the Middle East alone.
“Falling commodity prices led many of our global mining sector clients to curtail capital spending, but we responded by focusing on helping them get more value from existing operations. Coupled with strong performance in the oil and gas sector, this successful approach helped our natural resources team achieve revenue growth of 9%.
“It’s clear that even as the global economy returns to a more secure footing, clients remain focused on efficiency and achieving greater value. This is a great opportunity for our business, and we are confident that as we reap the rewards of our investment we will continue to build further momentum into 2015.”
In Yorkshire, clients for the business, which this year won the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise in the International Trade category for the third time, include Yorkshire Water, Bradford College, Sheffield City Council, Sheffield Hallam University and Morrisons.
