Profit up one-third at White Young Green

Engineering and sustainability consultant White Young Green has seen its pre-tax profit rise by 31% in a healthy year for the company.

Pre-tax profits hit £21m in the year ending 30 June 2008, up from £16m last year. Turnover rose to £282.1m, a 28% increase on last year's figure of £220.6m.

The company said its work in the international and public sectors helped it to achieve a 14% level of organic growth.

White Young Green also announced today that it has won a £1.6m contract to provide development control services on the Dubai Waterfront scheme for Nakheel in the UAE.

The scheme involves the transformation of 130m m² of desert and sea into a sustainable city housing 1.5 million people on the western shores of Dubai.

It will be developed on the last 15km of natural coastline in Dubai and will include commercial and industrial areas as well as leisure and housing, including affordable homes

White Young Green made three acquisitions during the year: transport consultant Savell Bird & Axon, financial consultant Management Consultants Group, and Irish infrastructure consultant PH McCarthy, for an aggregate of 34.4m. The company said that the three firms have integrated well into the group and are working “in line with expectations”.

The firm has a forward order book of £400m and said it was excellently placed to overcome challenging market conditions.

Peter Wood, chairman of White Young Green, said: “It gives me great pleasure to report another excellent year for White Young Green marked by strong double-digit organic growth across primary skill groups and geographies.”