Last updated 1st June 2022
Ramboll Group
Ramboll Group is a major engineering, design and environmental and consultancy company employing over 16,500 staff, with over 300 offices spread across 35 countries and with annual gross revenues of DKK 14.2 billion.
Founded in Denmark in 1945, the group provides long term solutions and has significant markets in northern Europe, India and the Middle East. It specialises in multi-disciplinary solutions across buildings, transport, energy, environment & health, water, management consulting and architecture & landscape and is involved in around 40,000 projects each year.
In the UK, the firm has revenues of £132 million and employs around 1,200 staff across 16 offices. The firm was ranked 7th position in Building magazine’s 2020 Top 150 Consultants league table, up from 9th in the previous year and it maintained position as 6th in its Top 50 Engineers index.
Key UK projects where Ramboll has worked have included Tate Modern’s extension and Scotland’s Queensferry Crossing and overseas, Ferrari World, the world”s largest indoor theme park. The firm also provided design services for the upgrade of the M25 and was also lead technical consultant on the £1.86bn DBFO Mersey Gateway bridge.
Recent key project wins have included a position on a Highways England framework and working on the East Coast rail mainline digital upgrade. The firm also worked for over a decade on the new Paddington Station of the Crossrail line.
More recently, Ramboll worked widely on the £105m Henry Royce Institute, the UK’s national institute for advanced materials research with a hub at the University of Manchester, which opened in late 2021 and was delivered by Laing O’Rourke. The firm was the structural and civil engineers on the new Meta (Facebook) office building at King”s Cross.
Today, the group is increasingly applying the experience it acquired in sustainable energy infrastructure in Scandinavia, to markets elsewhere. Henning Larsen, one of Denmark”s leading firm of architects became part of Ramboll Group in late 2019.
In spring 2022, the group reported results showing a strong performance in the UK (see below) and a marked improvement in its order book. Across the group its business units in environment & health, water, transport, and management consulting saw strong activity levels. As well as the UK, it also saw strong performances in Germany and Central Europe & Africa
Ramboll has also launched a new four-year strategy ‘The Partner for Sustainable Change’. Group CEO Jens-Peter Saul said: “It is a massive transformation for our company. We expect to invest up to DKK 2.5 billion into acquisitions and innovation that can further strengthen our expertise.”
Financials
To view the financials for Ramboll UK Ltd visit Companies House and use Company ID 03659970
Ramboll UK”s latest results announced with the parent group figures reflected the firm’s strong re-bound from the Covid slowdown. Gross revenues in the year to December 2021 rose by 16% to £132 million and the year-end order book rose by 26% to £57.4 million. In the previous year (to December 2020) turnover at Ramboll UK Ltd. fell by 7% to £113.9 million which left the group nursing a pre-tax loss of £2 million, compared to a £1 million profit previously. But the firm’s cash position improved and it had cash at bank and in hand of £15.5 million, up from £5.1 million and it had net assets of £18.74 million.
Core Services
Key contract wins in 2022 include Ramboll winning 4 lots on a new Crown Commercial Service framework (RM6165) to provide construction advisory services on the built environment, urban regeneration, international and defence. It will involve Ramboll advising on a wide range of public sector projects for the CCS, which helped achieve commercial benefits of some £2.04 billion last year.
Ramboll also has a key role in a project design team for the innovative £100 million Cambridge Children’s Hospital where planning permission was granted in March 2022. It will involve Ramboll providing all engineering services and architects in a partnership between HawkinsBrown and White Arkitekter and will involve an estimated total footprint of around 35,000 sq m of space including 5,000sq m of research space.
In early 2022, Ramboll appointed three new experienced directors to its highways division – including Rosie Simon as national highways key account director – to support further growth in a sector where it has grown significantly in the past years. In summer 2020, Highways England appointed a Ramboll/ Arup partnership as technical advisor for Lot 5 of the next stage of the Roads Investment Strategy for major road improvement schemes (over £100m) in the East and South East of England over the next five years.
Ramboll, together with Taylor Woodrow and Arup and one other also has a contract on the Highways England Regional Delivery Partnership framework to design and build major infrastructure projects in the South West over the next six years.
In summer 2021, the firm appointed Rebecca Mortimore as its UK science sector market lead. An architect specialising in the design of science facilities, she has wide experience in delivering complex science and translational research buildings.
The firm is highly active in the renewable sector. Ramboll is providing engineering and environmental consultancy services for InterGen, an Edinburgh-based group which has been granted consent for the UK’s largest battery energy storage project; a £200 million scheme which is part of the Gateway Energy Centre development on the Thames in Essex.
Ramboll is involved in Scotland’s biggest regeneration programme; Clyde Gateway in Glasgow, a mix of residential, commercial, retail, leisure and educational buildings.
In the commercial sector, Ramboll has had a wide role on one of the most significant projects underway outside London; One Centenary Way in Birmingham, where the firm provided multi-disciplinary engineering and environmental consultancy services to Sir Robert McAlpine. In buildings, the firm has strong positions in digital design and offsite construction and it works widely on frameworks in education, for the MoD and for the British Antarctic Survey.
In the rail sector, Ramboll see itself as a leader in digital signalling. In spring, 2020 Network Rail appointed a Ramboll, Atkins and PwC team as its partner for the transformation of the East Coast Main Line railway using digital signalling. In early 2022, Ramboll appointed Trina Minchella as director of rail Infrastructure and Helena Turner, director, to lead the firm’s High Speed 2 account.
Glenigan data
Glenigan data highlights Raboll”s involvement in a range of major projects. They show that the group is the M&E consultant on the planned £1.6 billion Clapham Park Estate Regeneration in London, where work is set to start in late 2023 and run for up to ten years (Project ID: 17089099). Ramboll is also a consultant on a new £56.9 million office development at St John’s Innovation Park in Cambridge, involving some 30,734 sq m of space where work is due to start in late 2022 and run for 12 months (Project ID: 20213526).
Conclusion: Significant player in UK design and engineering
Ramboll has built a strong reputation in the UK and has prospered thanks partly to its wide range of services and its multi-disciplinary approach. The group has been a key player in some major infrastructure projects and has a strong reputation with a wide range of significant public sector clients, notably Highways England, Network Rail and the universities. Today, the firm is putting a major emphasis on the growing sustainable sector and is likely to benefit from growing demand for green energy projects. It is also well-placed in emerging sectors such as digital rail and is likely to remain a significant player in the UK design and engineering sector.
How to win work with Ramboll
Ramboll provides a full spectrum of multi-disciplinary services and its philosophy is to innovate, add value and collaborate. The group has an in-house culture which it believes nurtures dialogue and experience. Ramboll was the innovation winner Laing O’Rourke’s annual supply chain awards held in late 2021 for its Digital Bridges, DfMA Programme.
Contacts:
Mathew Riley, Group Chief Operating Officer, Geographies
Email: mathew.riley@ramboll.co.uk
Tel 0207 631 5291
Dan Harvey Executive Director, UK Transport
Tel 0207 631 5291
Crispin Matson, Business Development, District Energy.
Tel 0207 631 5291