QS News Awards 2005

Best new QS firm

This Irish QS and PM firm was formed in 1999 by Paul Durnien as a one-man band and has been expanding steadily ever since. Today the company boasts 11 staff, including seven QSs and two building surveyors. In 2004/2005 turnover was £400,000 and profit hit a healthy £100,000. Durien has offices in Belfast and Dublin, and recently opened a branch in Londonderry. Over the next 12 months it plans to hire three more staff. Past projects include a £2.4m office development on Arthur Street, Belfast (pictured).

Long O Donnell Associates

Formed in 1998, LOD has seen turnover double in the past two years and is now on track to hit the £1m mark for 2005.

It expects to make a profit of £135,000 this year.

The firm operates in the oil and gas markets, whose period of slow growth in LOD’s early years held the company back. LOD tackled the problem by recruiting at least two clients a year

in the water and power sectors. The Norwich-based firm has now expanded to cover the whole of the country, including Scotland, Wales and Ireland, both northern and the Republic of Ireland. Clients include National Grid Transco.

Savant

A senior team mainly from Hanscomb set up Savant in 2002. The London-based QS and PM has gone on to open 12 offices throughout Europe, and in 2006 and 2007 plans to set up branches in Belgrade, Serbia and Bucharest, Romania. Its impressive client list includes the BBC, the Japanese government and SAB Miller. Savant’s work includes the BBC New Horizons Project in London, on which it consulted on change management and strategic property.

Thompson Gray Partnership

As the youngest firm of the line-up, Thompson Gray was formed in 2004 by directors Ron Thompson and former RICS chairman Stuart Gray. Based in Scotland, the fledgling firm has already grown to a 10-strong outfit and turnover is approaching £500,000. Some 70% of its workload is repeat business. The client list reveals a firm spanning a number of sectors. It includes the NHS, University of Edinburgh, Shiprow Developments and City Inn Hotels, Glasgow (pictured).

International achievement

The UK firm has gained an impressive foothold in Germany after setting up shop in Düsseldorf in 1994. Although the German market doesn’t recognise cost consultancy as a separate discipline, pressure on finances in the country during the 1990s allowed ChandlerKBS to carve a niche for itself as an independent cost manager. The turnover of its German operation has increased four times in the past five years to more than €2.5m in 2004/2005. The firm has gone on to open a Munich office. Clients include Hammer-son, the Düsseldorf Hilton (pictured), Siemens Real Estate and Pearl of Kuwait Real Estate.

Faithful & Gould

Faithful & Gould bought US firm Hanscomb in 2002. At the time Hanscomb had 20 offices and employed just shy of 400 staff.

Three years on Hanscomb Faithful & Gould has 23 offices in the US and employs 450 people. It is working on high profile projects, such as the Freedom Tower (left) on the site of New York’s World Trade Center. The company operates in a wide range of sectors and locations, from pharma-ceuticals in New Jersey to oil and gas in Texas.

Gleeds

One of the proudest achievements of the Gleeds Americas office is a $55m (£31.6m) church in Georgia, which was completed in September 2004. The First Baptist Church of Woodstock (pictured) was delivered no less than eight weeks ahead of programme, construction having started in September 2002. It was also under budget with only 3.5% design related changes. The 405,000 ft2 building houses a 7,000 seat theatre, 53,000 ft2 of preschool space, a music suite and a media and technology centre.

Savant

The London-headquartered QS and PM has become a key player in central and Eastern Europe after setting up two offices in Russia and one in the Czech Republic in 2002. Further offices have followed in these two countries, and also Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, and Poland.

The company has managed over 200 commissions in the region, varying in value from $100,000 (£57,500) to $350m (£201m). Major projects have included a $53m (£30.4m), 82,000 m2 retail mall in Almaty, Kazakhstan for client Kazkommerzbank and the Ritz-Carlton, Moscow (pictured).