Mouchel
| File:Mouchel logo.jpg | |
| Company type | Public; joined FTSE 250 in September 2006 |
|---|---|
| Industry | Professional support services; technical consulting and business services |
| 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 |
| Services | Highways, rail, business process outsourcing, water, environmental, property, housing, education, energy, waste, and management consultancy |
| Revenue | £448.4 million (October 2007) |
Number of employees | 11,000 (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, rail, water, property, housing, education, energy, waste, environmental and local government consultancy services in the UK and internationally.
Corporate overview
Mouchel provides a spectrum of management, commercial and technical services – services that are helping to re-shape communities and transform the lives of ordinary people. It works with clients in government, regulated industries and the development sector and is the force behind the partnerships that now set the standard for service delivery in these sectors.
Mouchel takes the lead in markets that range from highway network management and local authority real-estate management to water and rail engineering and asset delivery, project management and management consultancy.
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 is part of the FTSE 250 Index.
| Financial year (end of July) | Employees | Offices | Revenue | 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 | 7,970 | 83 | £448.4m | £32.4m | £2.20bn |
| August 2007 (incorporating HBS) | 11,000 | 106 | £572.5m (unaudited) | £29.8m (unaudited) | £2.70bn (unaudited) |
History
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.
On 16 October 2007, when the company announced its end-of-year preliminary financial results, Mouchel Parkman rebranded as 'Mouchel Group', 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 just a traditional technical and engineering consultancy.
Mouchel
Mouchel was founded 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.
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.
Sector areas and services
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 3,000 staff and at the end of March 2007 had an unaudited turnover of £124 million.
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.
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.
Highways
Mouchel's highways business is one of the UK's leading highways companies; highways-related work represents nearly half of the group's turnover. The business manages, maintains and improves more than 60,000km of motorways and trunk roads throughout the UK, and develops better local transport services.
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.
International
Mouchel's international business employs around 150 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. At the end of 2006, it had a turnover of £7.5 million, the majority of which derived from its work in the United Arab Emirates. Its major clients include Nakheel, [[Aldar_Properties|Aldar], Dubai Festival City and Dubai Municipality, to which it provides project management, engineering design and landscape design services.
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.
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.
Property
Mouchel's property business provides procurement, asset management, design maintenance, architectural design, building surveying, project management, and valuation and estate management services.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 and the largest water consultant in Scotland. At the end of 2007 it had a turnover of £63 million (13.5 per cent of Mouchel's group turnover) and employed more than 800 people.
Mouchel Group plc board
Richard Benton – chairman
Richard Cuthbert – chief executive
Kevin Young – group finance director
Amanda Massie – group company secretary
Rodney Westhead – senior independent director
Ian Knight – non-executive director
Sir Michael Lyons – non-executive director
Debbie Hewitt – non-executive director