Mouchel
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| Mouchel Group plc | |
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| Type | Public (LSE: MCHL) |
| Founded | 2003; merger between Mouchel plc and Parkman Group plc |
| Headquarters | West Byfleet, Surrey, UK |
| Key people | Richard Benton, chairman; Richard Cuthbert, chief executive; Kevin Young, group finance director |
| Industry | Professional support services; technical consulting and business services |
| Services | Highways, business process outsourcing, water, rail, management consultancy, property, environmental, energy, waste, education and housing |
| Revenue | £448.4 million (October 2007) |
| Employees | 10,900 (August 2007) |
| Website | www.mouchel.com |
Mouchel is a FTSE 250-listed professional support services company that provides a range of highways, business process outsourcing, water, rail, property, housing, education, energy, waste, environmental and local government consultancy services in the UK and internationally.
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[edit] Corporate overview
Mouchel provides managerial, commercial and technical expertise to clients in the public sector and regulated industry, and to a lesser extent the private sector. Clients employ Mouchel to assist with strategy, services, and both people and asset management. Operations include highways, water, rail, property, housing, education, energy, management consultancy and 'business process outsourcing' in a wide range of disciplines.
According to New Civil Engineer magazine's Consultants File 2008, Mouchel is the second largest employer of technical staff in the UK behind Atkins, the second largest provider of UK public sector outsourced services, also after Atkins, and the fifth largest technical consultant in the UK by fees rendered behind Atkins, Mott MacDonald, Arup and WSP.
The company issues its interim (half-year to the end of January) financial results every April and its preliminary (end of year to the end of July) financial results every October.
It has been part of the FTSE 250 Index since September 2006.
| Financial year (end of July) | Employees | Offices | Turnover | Pre-tax profits | Order book |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 4,250 | 54 | £223.6m | £13.5m | £0.70bn |
| 2004 | 4,550 | 54 | £271.9m | £19.4m | £0.85bn |
| 2005 | 5,195 | 57 | £310.9m | £23.8m | £1.00bn |
| 2006 | 5,967 | 62 | £374.0m | £27.4m | £1.20bn |
| 2007 | 8,168 | 83 | £448.4m | £32.4m | £2.20bn |
| August 2007 (incorporating HBS) | 10,900 | 106 | £572.5m (unaudited) | £29.8m (unaudited) | £2.70bn (unaudited) |
[edit] History
[edit] Post rebrand
On 16 October 2007, Mouchel Parkman rebranded as 'Mouchel', changing its stance from being a 'professional support services group' to a 'consulting and business services group'. The change was designed to be more inclusive of its expanded business outsourcing division, following the purchase of HBS, rather than being a traditional technical and engineering consultancy.
As a rebranded company, Mouchel's first acquisition was that of management consultant Hedra for £50m in March 2008. The combined business employed more than 500 management consultants and was positioned as one of the largest management consultants specialising in UK public services.
[edit] Mouchel Parkman
Mouchel plc and Parkman Group plc announced plans to merge on 21 August 2003. The merger was completed in September 2003, forming the new company, Mouchel Parkman plc. A single trading company, Mouchel Parkman Services Limited, was created on 1 April 2004.
In May 2005, Mouchel Parkman bought mainline engineering and installation specialists ServiRail – the Group's first acquisition since the merger. The acquisition allowed Mouchel Parkman to move into mainline engineering and installation.
On 16 November 2006, Mouchel Parkman announced a trio of acquisitions worth a total value of £50 million. The acquisitions had combined revenues of £30 million and increased the group's staffing by nearly 500. The acquisitions were project management and organisational change specialist Hornagold and Hills, water and utilities consultancy Ewan Group plc, and software and system solutions company Traffic Support Limited (TSL).
On 7 August 2007, Mouchel Parkman announced the acquisition of business process outsourcing (BPO) and IT group HBS, formerly Hyder Business Services, for £46.24 million from private equity firm Terra Firma. The two companies first worked together in May 2007, when they started a £300 million 12-year strategic services partnership with Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council called the Unity Partnership.
[edit] Mouchel
Mouchel was founded in Briton Ferry in 1897 by Louis Gustave Mouchel, who arrived in the UK from France with a licence to use the new technique of reinforcing concrete using iron bars that was developed by François Hennebique. During the first half of the twentieth century, Mouchel developed into a consulting engineering practice, with early work including the Royal Liver Building in Liverpool, London's Earls Court and Royal Victoria Dock, and football stands for Liverpool Football Club and Manchester City Football Club. The company also designed the cooling towers for London landmark Battersea Power Station.
In the 1980s, with the evolution of privatisation and outsourcing in the UK, Mouchel moved into advising local authorities on competitive tendering.
It floated in June 2002 and its acquisitions included signalling and safety consultant Metro Consulting in February 2002, e-government and ICT specialists Lloyd Davies Associates Plc in April 2003, and gas engineering consultancy GEL Group Limited in August 2003.
[edit] Parkman
Parkman was founded in Liverpool in 1888, predominantly as a water and public health business. By the mid-1960s it had diversified into highways and structural engineering and from the 1970s it had spread its wings internationally, working in Africa and Portugal and later Eastern Europe. The company advised on outsourcing following the rapid expansion of public sector term contracts in the 1980s. From the mid-1990s Parkman moved into public sector property and housing, starting with the London Borough of Bexley, and in 1996 it won a Queens Award for Export Achievement.
In 2000, the company, previously management and staff-owned, underwent a management buy-out and by 2001 a significant shift took place in the company's turnover as it moved towards public sector outsourcing commissions. In 2001 it was floated on the London Stock Exchange.
In 2002, Parkman was named Financial Times New Company of the Year and the following year it was named as one of the Sunday Times Top 100 Best Companies to Work For and secured New Civil Engineer's Consultant of the Year award. It acquired Full Circle Educational Services in May 2002 and lighting design consultancy Atkins Odlin in July 2003.
[edit] Sector areas and services
[edit] Business process outsourcing
Mouchel's business process outsourcing business is represented by HBS, which was acquired in August 2007. The business works with local authority clients in the UK to improve and transform back-office support services by investing in equipment and facilities and redesigning systems and processes. Its key partnerships are with Bath & North East Somerset Council, Lincolnshire County Council, Middlesbrough Council, Milton Keynes Council and Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council. The business employs 2,700 staff and at the end of March 2007 had an unaudited turnover of £124 million.
[edit] Education
Mouchel's education business provides support services for individual schools, groups of schools and local authorities, as well as local authority support for the UK government's 'Every Child Matters' agenda, which seeks to improve the outcomes for children. In October 2007 its 50:50 joint venture with Babcock – mpb education – was named preferred bidder by the London Borough of Hackney to deliver its £167 million Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.
[edit] Energy
Mouchel's energy business helps partners to deliver an efficient and affordable supply of energy to homes and businesses. The energy business's engineering capability includes: mechanical and process; civil and structural; instrumentation and control; electrical; and, corrosion control. These skills are complemented by computer aided design (CAD).
In addition to its design support, the energy business also delivers asset management services, providing various specialist consultancy including planning consent services, land acquisition services, environmental studies, planning applications, and negotiations with regulatory bodies.
[edit] Highways
Mouchel's highways business is one of the UK's leading highways companies. Its services range from the planning and design of major capital projects to the maintenance and management of congested road networks; the business manages, maintains and improves more than 60,000km of motorways and trunk roads throughout the UK. Highways-related work represents just under half of the group's turnover.
[edit] Housing
Mouchel's housing business was one of the UK's first providers to deliver externalised housing management services. These include rent arrears recovery, repairs management, major works, estates services and the management of supported housing units for the elderly. Its only current contract involves managing council housing stock across eight electoral wards in Hackney, from neighbourhood offices in Homerton and De Beauvoir and Queensbridge, on behalf of Hackney Homes – the company launched and owned by the London Borough of Hackney in April 2006.
[edit] International
Mouchel's international business employs around 420 professional staff and is primarily based in the Middle East, with two offices in Dubai and one in both Abu Dhabi and Kuwait. The company also has two offices in Africa; Nairobi and Cape Town. In 2007 it had a turnover of £28 million, the majority of which derived from its work in the United Arab Emirates. Its major clients include Nakheel, Aldar, Dubai Festival City and Dubai Municipality, to which it provides project management, engineering design and landscape design services.
[edit] Land and environment
Mouchel's land and environment business provides clients in the public and private sectors with a full and integrated service in the planning, development and management of land-based assets.
It provides statutory and non-statutory environmental support for the entire life cycle of projects, particularly at early stages where it can help clients to avoid costly hurdles later on. Its services include land remediation, geotechnical engineering and environmental planning.
The business also includes a division called LandAspects, thought to be the UK's largest land information management business, which provides geographic information systems, topographic surveys, web-based applications and compulsory purchase services.
[edit] Management consultancy
Mouchel's management consultancy business employs more than 400 professional staff who specialise in procurement and project management. This involves technical, financial and commercial advice for all stages of project work. Typical services include PFI advice, due diligence, options appraisal, compliance monitoring, business case preparation, risk management, project definition, facilities management and stakeholder consultation. The sectors it is involved with include defence, law and order, schools, health, waste, social housing, nuclear, roads and rail.
In November 2006, Mouchel acquired project management and organisational change specialist Hornagold and Hills, bolstering Mouchel's management consultancy capability.
[edit] Property
Mouchel's property business provides procurement, asset management, design maintenance, architectural design, building surveying, project management, and valuation and estate management services. According to New Civil Engineer magazine's Consultants File 2008, Mouchel is the largest provider of facilities management in the UK.
Its key clients are local authorities, with the business being responsible for one of the largest public property portfolios in the UK, including more than 2,200 schools and 4,000 other public buildings.
[edit] Rail
Mouchel's rail business works for both mainline and underground clients, acting as a consultant – advising clients on the management and improvement of their rail infrastructure assets – and carrying out engineering services, such as works to renew and maintain infrastructure.
[edit] Regeneration
With UK local government moving towards larger contracts over longer periods of time covering a broad range of activities, Mouchel has established a number of 'strategic partnerships' with the councils of Liverpool, Knowsley, Oldham and Rochdale. These provide a bundle of property and support services to the cities over a number of years.
[edit] Waste
Mouchel's waste business provides specialist waste management consultancy services to private and public sector clients in a variety of areas. These include developing and implementing sustainable municipal waste strategies and providing services for all stages of a waste project's lifecycle – from strategy and procurement, through to design, planning, licensing and project management.
[edit] Water
Mouchel's water business provides a wide range of water services to public and private companies, both in the UK and overseas. At the end of 2006, following Mouchel's acquisition of Ewan Group, it was the third largest water consultant in the UK behind MWH Europe and Mott MacDonald Group according to New Civil Engineer magazine's Consultants File 2008. At the end of 2007 it had a turnover of £75 million (15 per cent of Mouchel's group turnover) and employed more than 1,050 people across 16 offices.
[edit] Mouchel Group plc board
Richard Benton – chairman (since 1998)
Richard Cuthbert – chief executive (since 2002)
Kevin Young – group finance director (since 1998)
Amanda Massie – group company secretary (since 2004)
Rodney Westhead – senior independent director (since 2001)
Ian Knight – non-executive director (since 2001)
Sir Michael Lyons – non-executive director (since 2001)
Debbie Hewitt – non-executive director (since 2007)
Lynton Barker – non-executive director (since 2008)
