WET News

Water sector helps Barhale make solid progress BARHALE Barhale House Bescot Crescent Walsall West Midlands WS1 4NN Tel: 01922 726 888 www.barhale.co.uk THE LEADERS 2019 Barhale posted a 47 per cent increase in revenue to £179.4 million in its 2017-18 accounts and, while gross profit dipped 34 per cent to £8 million, both operating and pre-tax profits were up. Barhale CEO Matthew Behan described that as a "solid performance", saying: "2018 represented a year of satisfactory progress in line with the company's growth strategy." The boost in turnover resulted in large part from the company's growth in volumes from water frameworks and major projects. "These are a strong and pleasing set of results driven by a good performance across our operations," Behan said. "In particular, we have continued to build deep and positive relationships with our water utilities clients." Significant work delivered through frameworks for SPEN, National Grid and more recently projects for tRIIO have also helped boost turnover as A"er a difficult period involving operating losses over a sustained period, Black & Veatch UK returned to profitability in 2017 and is now shaping up to play an important role in the water sector's new era. The company, which consults on, delivers and manages infrastructure in water, power and telecommunications, has enjoyed some significant successes in the water industry in relation to asset management in recent times, with its ASSET360 data analytics platform helping the company to secure contracts with Yorkshire Water and Thames Water's eight20 alliance earlier in AMP6. It has since taken its asset management offering forward significantly. At the start of 2018, it joined forces with EMS Cognito to offer bespoke programmes and training in relation to Lean Reliability Centred Maintenance, which assesses factors that prevent processes delivering as intended and identifies means of mitigating those issues. At the start of this year, it the company works to diversify and balance its overall portfolio. Barhale, which has AMP6 frameworks with Affinity Water, Anglian Water, Severn Trent Water, Southern Water, Thames Water and Yorkshire Water, is looking to play a major role in AMP7 and has already secured a place on one of Severn Trent's capital delivery build-only frameworks for the 2020-25 period. The company is also part of two Anglian Water alliances, working on civil engineering and electrical and mechanical teamed up with technology firm EMAGIN, which developed the artificial intelligence platform that is being used by United Utilities and Scottish Water for asset management. The tie-up allows EMAGIN to make use of Black & Veatch's hands-on asset management and engineering expertise to provide greater insights into how systems are operating. In March, Black & Veatch launched a Smart Maintenance business that involves the provision of digitally enabled onsite maintenance teams, moving from strategic asset management expertise to direct implementation. construction as part of the @one alliance and asset maintenance as part of the IOS alliance. Both contracts were awarded for a 15-year period until 2030, with reviews every five years, and both have now been formally extended to help prepare for a significantly higher level of investment by Anglian Water into AMP7. Barhale, which is working on the major Elan Valley Aqueduct, Newark Waste and Water and Birmingham Resilience projects for Severn Trent, is also heavily involved in several sections of the Thames Tideway Tunnel project. "We are expanding into new areas of technology and digital/ artificial intelligence offerings, and seeing growth in our core water, environmental and energy consulting, design-and-build and asset management businesses," Black & Veatch Europe's executive managing director, Scott Aitken, tells The Leaders 2019. "The thing that sets the company apart is the ability to support every point in the lifecycle of clients' assets, coupled to an outstanding knowledge of the ways in which digital technologies can enhance customer outcomes." THE NUMBERS 2014 14/15 15/16 16/17 17/18 % change Sales £m 60.2 95.2 80.9 121.8 179.4 47 Gross profit £m 6.4 8.4 9.9 12.2 8.0 -34 Operating profit £m 2.2 0.8 0.7 2.3 2.4 3 Pre-tax profit £m 2.0 1.0 0.2 2.1 2.5 19 Staff 778 654 578 710 769 8 Net assets £m 7.5 7.7 7.7 8.6 10.6 23 THE RATIOS 2014 14/15 15/16 16/17 17/18 % change Return on capital % 26.5 12.9 2.0 24.6 23.8 -3 Gross margin % 10.7 8.8 12.3 10.0 4.5 -55 Operating margin % 3.6 0.8 0.9 1.9 1.3 -30 Net margin % 3.3 1.1 0.2 1.7 1.4 -19 Sales/employee £k 77.3 145.5 140.0 171.5 233.3 36 THE NUMBERS 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 % change Sales £m 226.5 190.1 136.2 137.7 163.1 18 Gross profit £m 5.9 13.6 9.6 -10.3 17.2 n/a Operating profit £m -7.5 -0.5 -1.0 -22.2 4.4 n/a Pre-tax profit £m -7.5 7.0 -1.6 -24.6 4.7 n/a Staff 1,012 780 598 613 597 -3 Net assets £m 37.6 41.1 42.3 14.4 20.8 44 THE RATIOS 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 % change Return on capital % -20.0 17.0 -3.8 -171.2 22.5 n/a Gross margin % 2.6 7.2 7.0 -7.5 10.6 n/a Operating margin % -3.3 -0.3 -0.7 -16.1 2.7 n/a Net margin % -3.3 3.7 -1.2 -17.9 2.9 n/a Sales/employee £k 223.8 243.7 227.7 224.7 273.2 22 Black & Veatch takes smart approach BLACK & VEATCH 60 High Street Redhill Surrey RH1 1SH Tel: 01737 774 155 www.bv.com LEADERS 2019 11

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