BMT Group Ltd (BMT) has announced a solid financial performance for the year to September 30, 2013. Although market conditions have been challenging, BMT secured revenues of £163.3m, an increase of 5% year on year, with underlying operating profits of £11.3m, a proportion of which has been distributed to the staff through the company’s profit share schemes.
David McSweeney, BMT’s Finance Director explains: “ BMT now earns more than two-thirds of its income from non-U.K. customers, illustrating the truly global nature of our operations. The year has seen some of our markets, particularly in the defence and mining sectors, cool and the highly complex, technically demanding nature of certain projects has required additional investment. Moving forward, our order book is higher than last year’s notably strong level. This suggests that recovery is continuing in most of our markets and gives us confidence that BMT can continue to prosper in the niche, high-value markets in which we operate.”
Comprising 25 operating companies, involved in activity across 10 markets in over 25 countries, the BMT group continues to concentrate on its core maritime-focussed offering. Highlights for the year include the acquisition of Verweij & Hoebee, a leading provider of both blue water (coastal) and brown water (inland) Hull & Machinery (H&M) surveys in Europe and the opening of new offices across a number of regions.
BMT secured a number of Liquef ied Natural Gas (LNG) projects including cost and feasibility studies at sites in Pipavav Port, India and was subsequently selected for engineering design work and an environmental impact assessment.
The strategy to ‘internationalize’ BMT’s structural integrity monitoring business continued with further investment in Brazil, as well as increased levels of sales and contract support resources in Europe and South East Asia. Recent acquisitions in Western Australia have also proved effective, giving BMT a strong presence from which to promote further growth in oil and gas related activities; especially in the environmental services market.
Managing complex projects from many industry sectors to support the provision of efficient, reliable and effective services across the government sector, BMT further demonstrated its success through a number of major new framework and project wins during the year in the UK, Canada and Australia. This included the Government Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) ConsultancyONE Framework, which is becoming the de facto procurement route for the provision of business and management consultancy contracts of values between £100,000 and £2 million.
Peter French, BMT’s Chief Executive, comments: “ As we grow, so too does the need to invest in expanding our capabilities across the group – from developing the project management expertise required to deliver larger contracts to ensuring we have the staff and offices to meet growing global demand for our expertise. Our challenge is to maintain our commitment to innovation and research, while matching up to the requirements of running an increasingly large business. By continuing to invest in the future, we ensure that we are well positioned to continue our growth and to further enhance the quality of delivery to our customers.”