Weeks signs £7.5m deal with French

The days of independent trading for Weeks, the consulting group, could well be over following the announcement of an agreed bid last week worth £7.5m from Bureau Veritas, a private French consultancy.

Chief executive Philip Hill said: "It reviewed professional consultancies in construction in the UK and we were the best fit."

The name Weeks Consulting will be retained. Hill will be managing director, while Chris Slack retains his position of managing director of Weeks Laboratories. Both will report to Olivier Guize, who heads up Bureau Veritas' existing presence in the UK, which runs to 700 employees and has an annual turnover of £40m.

"The group has a UK position in several other sectors, including marine and plant safety, plus a certification business that is comparable to the one run by Lloyds," said Hill.

"Its consultancy work here has so far been restricted to noise and vibration, with no coverage of construction."

In the last full year Weeks made a pre-tax profit of £1.2m on a turnover of £19m, but at the most recent interims (six months to 30 September 2002) it was only just in the black, at £354,000. It recently issued a profit warning, a result of margins sliding as expensive subcontracted staff were brought in to compensate for manpower shortages.