Record Sales of Luxury Cars Drive New Work to City Engineering Consultancy

Added by Love Business East Midlands | 23 January 2014

UPDATED: 23 January 2014

Leading Derby civil engineering company Rodgers Leask is sharing in the resurgent sales success of  Britain's biggest car maker.

It is involved in working on new buildings or refurbishing others in the West Midlands to make extra manufacturing plants for Jaguar Land Rover, which is taking on 2,000 extra workers to meet demand for its models.

This follows the news that JLR smashed its sales records in 2013, increasing them by 19 per cent to 425,000 vehicles.

The knock-on effect of JLR's need for extra capacity to meet worldwide demand  is worth a six figure sum to Rodgers Leask, based in Canal Street. The work comes as Rodgers Leask  has started its own three-year masterplan to increase business and grow the company as the economy improves.

Rodgers Leask,  the largest independent engineering consultancy in the city, plans to double its annual turnover from £4.5m to £9m by the end of 2016.

“We are looking to be the consultants that developers go to in all disciplines,” said managing director Andy Leask.

These disciplines are land development, traffic and transportation, flood risk assessment, geotechnical engineering, environmental engineering, structural and civil engineering.

The plan envisages taking on new staff. The vision is to increase the number of employees from 35 to 70 by the end of the plan period, but the number has already climbed to 50.

The number of staff at the Derby head office has already gone from 30 to 40, and under the plan the number of employees at the offices in Birmingham and London will each total a minimum of 15.

For two years the Birmingham office has been based at the Innovation Centre in Longbridge, on the site of the old Rover car factory.

That has now moved to bigger premises above a superstore. Headed by Andrew Catmur, the staff there have already been boosted from four to seven, and the company is recruiting civil engineers who specialise in land development and roads/drainage.

Andy is confident of the future of the company. “Like other firms in the construction industry we have suffered because of the recession,” he said.

“Now, we are delighted to say that we think we have turned the corner and are looking to a bright future as the economy recovers”.

As part of the plan, the company stresses  the importance of training and professional qualifications, with rewards for success against key performance indicators.
 

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