Mouchel Parkman confident

After little more than a month, the integration of consultancy groups Mouchel and Parkman is reported to be going well. Mouchel Parkman business development director Stuart Black said: "We hit the ground running."
With more than 4,000 staff and 73 managed services contracts, the enlarged consultancy group is expected to hit a turnover of about £250m in the coming year. There are no prospects of the group expanding into Europe.
"The strategy is to remain UK-centric as we want to do more in the home market," said Black.
Latest financial results cover the 12-month period to 31 July. Mouchel's proposed acquisition of Parkman was only announced on 21 August, so all the figures relate to the pre-expansion Mouchel.
Its £150m turnover was £45m higher than the previous year, while pre-tax profit doubled to £7.6m.
Of Mouchel's three operating divisions, it was managed services that proved to be the powerhouse in terms of growth, up 66% to £97m, while operating margin improved from 4.1% to 5.2%.
"We'd hope to see margins nudge further ahead as we have four new Highways Agency contracts that run for five to seven years and the optimum efficiency on them is only achieved in the third and fourth years," said Black.