Capita wants £200m turnover by 2006

Capita Property Consultancy (CPC) has today (Thursday) revealed an ambitious three-year plan to double its annual turnover to £200m.

To achieve this expansion, Capita expects to make take-over bids for around 10 of its smaller rivals.

Richard Marchant, who became managing director of CPC 18 months ago, wants to see CPC's staff number grow from 2,000 to 4,000.

The push will be to establish a stronger presence in growth areas which are seen as highways, infrastructure, utilities and healthcare.

Capita Group has an annual turnover of £1bn and in the latest six months a turnover of £530m produced a pre-tax profit of £51m.

Capita hit the headlines recently when it won the contract for London's Congestion Charging Scheme, worth £280m over a five-year period.

Steve Twigg, CPC marketing manager, said: "We've got WS Atkins in our sights. We're multi-skilled and work in such areas as project management, architectural services and civil structural engineering.

"We're the UK's ninth largest consultant right now and want to get into the top five in the next three years."

A marketing team has also been established within CPC, headed by Richard Beevers. .