GROWTH abroad has helped Turner & Townsend offset continued tough UK conditions and see pre-tax profits rise 16% to £18m.
The Leeds-based consultancy group, which is project manager for Europe’s tallest building The Shard at London Bridge, said its international business grew to 42% of revenue in the year to the end of April, from 40% a year earlier. The group’s Birmingham office is headed up by Matt Billingham.
The group’s revenues dipped around 9% to £192m.
Its work in Australia, the Americas, Africa and Asia all saw sales growth, and T&T plans to accelerate its growth globally over the next year. It now has 63 offices after opening sites in Vietnam, Canada, Kazakhstan, Chile, South Korea and New York.
Executive chairman Tim Wray, who moves to a non-executive role next year after 40 years with the business, said that the target is to grow international revenues to 60% of total revenues.
He said that UK work had been hit by project cancellations such as the £464m North Tees hospital, which was axed by the coalition Government, as well as new schools projects.
The group employs 209 staff in Yorkshire, with the bulk of these at its Leeds head office.
Its global workforce is about 2,200.
T&T said its order book stands at £320m, and margins improved to 10.5%.
The privately-owned group has once again deferred a long-expected move to the stock market, as tough conditions hamper initial public offerings.
Other work carried out by the group includes project manager for the Beijing Great Wheel in China and cost management work on the Museum of London’s new £20.5m galleries.
