Our business
Turnover remained strong in the Commercial, Retail and Public sectors. However, it was the Infrastructure, Education, Hotels, Arts and Leisure sectors that showed the most dramatic increases, some in excess of 30%. This has followed a strategy to strengthen and broaden the full sector mix across the firm.
Senior Partner Rob Smith comments, “The firm is enhancing its sector-focused strategy which makes us more aligned to clients’ needs. It has also led to us developing a deeper understanding of the design, performance and value criteria which have enabled us to capitalise on emerging market opportunities. Our aim is to continually improve the quality of the advice and services we offer to our clients which is best achieved by focusing everyone’s energy on our clients’ market sectors, thereby enabling us to outperform the market in the coming years.”
Davis Langdon’s growth has been buoyed by a 46% increase in the firm’s turnover in Ireland and the Middle East. The Eastern Europe operation is also experiencing rapid growth.
All the firm’s service areas of cost management, project management and specialist services showed strong growth of between 15% and 35% over the year.
Staff numbers in the UK, Europe and the Middle East increased by 28%, from 1667 to 2100 over the past year, in-line with turnover growth.
Our environment
The firm merged with Scotland-based Mackenzie Partnership in July 2007, creating the largest construction consultancy in Scotland. The joint expertise resulting from this merger has further enhanced Davis Langdon’s ability to offer clients an unrivalled depth of resource across all sectors.
Davis Langdon continues to invest in its people’s environment, with five new office moves in the past year for the Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Milton Keynes and Maidstone offices with more planned for 2009.
In addition to this, the firm has introduced a new SAP enterprise-wide system, to improve process efficiency and provide more effective and integrated operations as the firm continues to grow.
Rob Smith said, “This has been another great year for us. We continue to focus on providing the best quality of service to our clients through investment in our people, training, offices and systems in order to make a measurable difference to our clients’ projects.
“As a responsible employer, the well-being of our people is important to us at Davis Langdon and we have initiated several new benefits this year to improve employees’ work life balance, including flexible working, early finish Fridays in 2008, a weekly GP surgery and a Davis Langdon Helpline.
”Our success in this area has been reflected by our achieving 19th position in the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For and 12th position in the Management Partners’ Forum top 100 professional firms to work for; winning Building magazine’s ‘Construction Consultant of the Year’ for the third consecutive year and being named ‘Top International Construction Consultant’ for the 15th year.”
“The year ahead will undoubtedly be tougher, but we are committed to our values and will continue to apply best practice in everything that we do.”
A sustainable approach
Davis Langdon became a carbon neutral company in 2007 and is progressing towards ISO 14001. The firm launched a first-in-market ‘Carbon Rating’ tool to help clients identify and manage their carbon footprint. It also won the ‘Fleet Environmental Award’ from Fleet World for its new company car policy, which aims to encourage sustainable car choices for Davis Langdon employees.
Key projects
The firm has been involved in many high profile projects over the past year, including Kings Cross masterplanning; Paradise Street Liverpool; The Shard of Glass; New Street Square; Liverpool Arena and Convention Centre; the Royal Festival Hall refurbishment; New Doha International Airport; Harvard Medical School in Dubai; Abu Dhabi Investment Company Tower and the World Trade Centre in Moscow.
