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Winner

Turner & Townsend
Its turnover grew 365% and its staff increased 238% over the past five years – with these outstanding numbers, it is easy to understand why Turner & Townsend’s project team has made such an impact in the sector recently.

But this firm is about more than just growth. From the £1.2bn Dublin Airport project to a £2.6m contract for sustainability work on the Dalby Forest Visitor Centre, the company delivers all its projects with passion and excellent service.

Its commitment to perfection is reflected in the range of initiatives it has implemented recently, such as its T2 intranet tool, to help share best practice information more easily, the secondment of one of its directors to the Office of Government Commerce to develop sustainability guidance and the fact that it has a client care programme on every project to measure its service delivery.

Runners-up

DBK Group
In the past 12 months DBK has doubled in size, following three acquisitions and a national recruitment drive. Now, with 170 employees in six offices across the UK it has a strong pool of resources with which to tackle the challenges ahead.

Already, in its expanded form it has made improvements to service delivery and widened its reach. It now delivers 74% of its projects on time and to budget and it seems this will only get better.

The company’s expertise in sectors, from regeneration and leisure to health, makes it one of the most highly-regarded project managers in the country.

EC Harris
EC Harris has a hefty programme management portfolio, out of which the most striking is the Lexus Europe project. In 2004 it was commissioned to complete a full audit of Toyota’s European network, consisting of 300 facilities in over 28 countries, and this was completed in less than three months. The client was so impressed that it extended the appointment and asked EC Harris to deliver a four-year programme of improvements to its network and make it flexible to support future changes.

Among other successes, by March 2007, 224 project approval forms were achieved – four more than the 220 target. The budget for 2008 is still aligned to the original set in 2005 and this has been maintained through improved efficiency, despite increasing the total number of projects and changes to scope.

Pentarq
Architect and quantity surveyor Pentarq’s core focus has increasingly moved towards project management and is now an integral part of the business. Most notably, Pentarq has worked on the redevelopment of the £4.5m Pier Arts Centre in Orkney, said to be the world’s smallest art gallery. As the centre was located in a conservation area, this involved integrating the surrounding neighbourhood in the plan. Using a range of innovative means to overcome complexities, the project was delivered on time and to a high standard.