International design, engineering and risk management consultancy BMT Group Ltd has announced another strong financial performance for the year to 30 September 2012.
By focusing on markets where it can deliver high value customer solutions, revenues from BMT’s continuing businesses rose 22% to £156m and underlying operating profits increased to £13.7m, a proportion of which has been distributed to the staff through the company’s profit share schemes.
David McSweeney, BMT’s finance director explains: “Despite challenging trading conditions, underlying operating profit margin rose from 6% to 9%, bringing us closer to the industry norm for companies within the high value engineering sector. Such improvement is vital so that we can continue to reinvest in our people, both attracting and retaining the best talent, as well as our extensive R&D capability to identify future technologies and solutions which will help to address our customers’ challenges.”
Comprising 23 operating companies, involved in activity across five continents, the BMT Group continues to concentrate on its core maritime focussed offering in the organisation’s three sectors of defence, energy & environment, and transport.
Highlights of the year include the acquisition of Oceanica Consulting Pty Ltd, a specialist coastal and marine environmental consulting company based in Australia; a successful contract win to provide specialist dredging consultancy services to Rio Tinto in Western Australia; and the delivery of weather forecasting services in the Java Sea.
BMT also continues to invigorate its pioneering maritime spirit and looks to create innovative solutions through its commitment to R&D and collaboration with industry and academic partners. Its recent collaborative R&D project with University College London (UCL) will research new ways to increase shipping efficiency and reduce emissions, something which remains uppermost in the minds of ship owners, operators and charterers around the world.
Peter French, BMT’s chief executive comments: “This year we have been able to secure a number of major projects as we further demonstrate to our customers the breadth and depth of our knowledge and technical excellence in key markets. Our independence allows us to provide impartial advice and genuinely focus our attention on helping our customers succeed. More and more we are seeing our highly skilled experts from around the group becoming part of an integrated team that works in partnership with customers, providing an opportunity to share knowledge and best practice.”
