Mott MacDonald set to cut jobs at Franklin + Andrews

Franklin + Andrews is set to cut jobs as part of a drive to reduce overheads by parent firm Mott MacDonald. The move follows a fall in profit for 2004.

Guy Leonard, managing director of Mott MacDonald’s management, economics and consultancy division and overall boss at F+A, confirmed the cull could hit directors and junior staff, but claimed the number of job losses would be a “handful”.

Leonard said the firm was looking at director positions in its property division and more junior posts in its defence operation.

Sources at rival firms claimed they had already been approached by F+A directors interested in leaving the firm. One source said: “They are obviously looking to get out. The firm is looking to make F+A more efficient and cut costs.”

Leonard said: “We are looking at one or two areas and will decide in a matter of weeks. There’s not a predefined result. We are going through a consultancy process at the moment.”

Leonard stressed the process was “no different to what anyone else is doing”. He added: “It’s not an issue of getting work, it’s more that we haven't got the right shape to the overall staff. We are looking to bring in younger to middle- grade people to get a better balance between junior and senior posts.”

Leonard attributed last year’s drop in profit at the £75m-turnover division to accountancy issues. He said:

We’re looking to get a better balance between junior and senior posts

Guy Leonard, Mott MacDonald

“We probably recognised too much profit in 2003.”

Mott MacDonald managing director Keith Howells said of F+A: “Paradoxically, there is a lot of pressure on salaries but pressure on rates at the same time, so you have got to deal with it from both sides.”

In its 2004 annual report and accounts, Mott MacDonald said its management, economics and consultancy division (of which F+A makes up about 50%), had “a very challenging year on a number of fronts” and as a result there would be a focus on “controlling overheads”. Pre-tax profit for Mott MacDonald as a whole dropped almost 13% to £11.46m for the year to 31 December 2004, as a result. However, the firm’s turnover rose 3% to £485m.

Howells said the main concern going forward was the UK transport business, because of uncertainty in the highways and railways sectors. “There is a lot of uncertainty about Crossrail, which was a big project for us last year,” he said.

Howells added that so far this year, the UK business was performing worse than the international business, but the US had significantly picked up.