W.S. Atkins

By Nicola Pellow

Plan, design, enable

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Sir William Atkins

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Contents

CONTENTS 3

INTRODUCTION 4

IN THE BEGINNING 4

SIR WILLIAM ATKINS 5KEY DATES 6

ATKINS TODAY 7

ATKINS STRUCTURE 8TRANSPORT 8DESIGN AND ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS 9MANAGEMENT AND PROJECT SERVICES 10EQUITY INVESTMENT 10SPANNING THE GLOBE 11AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS 11ATKINS’ STAFF 12ATKINS’ CHARITIES 12

THE FUTURE 13

References 14

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IntroductionToday, Atkins is a well known firm all across the world. It has around 17,000 employees and an annual turnover of around £1.4bn1. It has offices across the globe and has won numerous awards. It takes great care of its’ staff and supports a range of charities.

Although it has expanded greatly in the past 70 years, it has not altered its core values.“Atkins was started as a family business and is still run that way today” says Claire Renwick, who has been employed at Atkins for just over 3 years.So let us look back at how Atkins began and how it has grown over the years.

In the BeginningThe engineering practice of WS Atkins & Partners was established in 1938 by Mr WS Atkins, with offices in Westminster.

Originally, his main business was London Ferro. They were working at Barry on a magnesite plant and met an architect, Donald Hamilton. With another man named Pickett, he had an idea for a retractable ford to be placed in airfield runways, the roof of which could be raised on an enemy landing and the oncoming planes sprayed with machine gun fire. He asked Mr Atkins if he would develop the idea for him. Hamilton did not want the name of London Ferro involved, so Mr Atkins formed a small practice to do the design work, transferring to it the engineering work he was doing for others. Thus WS Atkins & Partners came into being. Nearly all the engineering work WSA & P did was in Steel. Work came in from architects who had previously used Smith Walker, and had looked elsewhere when S. W. Ltd was sold.

In its early years, the practice specialised in civil and structural engineering design work. After the war the scope and scale of services provided to clients increased rapidly. In addition to the work in consulting engineering, Atkins has developed specialist services in planning, engineering sciences, architecture and project management2.

1 http://www.atkinsglobal.com/aboutus/atkinsataglance/ - 02/08/07

2 http://bluepages.wsatkins.co.uk/aboutthecompany/ - 02/08/07

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Sir William AtkinsSir William Atkins was one of the century’s most eminent engineers. He was born in London in February 1902 and was educated at the Coopers’ Company School.During his apprenticeship to Sir Graham Wood he became a member of The Institution of Civil Engineers. Within three years of his apprenticeship, he was a fully fledged draughtsman. He remembers, “One thing I discovered then was that I could clearly visualise what I was designing. I could see the structure even before I started work on it, so that I had the most elegant solution to put calculations to”.He went on to University College London, where he graduated with honours in 1925.

In 1934 he founded the business which later became The London Ferro Concrete Company, and in 1945 RE Eagan Ltd3.

In 1959, the Le Marchant family sold Chobham Place estate and the house and park were bought by Sir William Atkins. Passionately interested in horticulture he set up the Round Pond Nursery in the old walled kitchen garden, specialising in the micro-culture of plants4. This provided him with the opportunity of remaining amongst the top group of experts in the field of biotechnology.

Mr Atkins was awarded the CBE in 1966 and he received a knighthood ten years later. In 1982 he became an Honorary Freeman of the Borough of Epsom.

3 “Partners – Fifty Years of WSA & P”, Sir William Atkins C.B.E.,

4 http://www.gardenstrusts.org.uk/Archive/Chobham.html - 02/08/07

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Sir William’s distinguished career saw him associated with most of the major projects since the War, including the Drax Power Station, Selby Coalfield and the Channel Tunnel project.

Until his death in the autumn of 1989, he was president of the Company.He is remembered fondly by many of the staff at Atkins. Each Christmas Eve he would walk around the offices and wish everybody a Merry Christmas.

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Key Dates

1957:• WS Atkins and Partners purchased Woodcote Grove and new

Office accommodation was built on the site between 1958-1961. This later became their main office5.

1986:• WS Atkins Group decides to spin off consulting operations,

including WS Atkins & Partners as WS Atkins Consultants; the company's remaining assets are regrouped under a separate company, Atkins Holdings Ltd.

• Employees are given option to buy as much as 60 percent of the company's shares.

1990:• WS Atkins calls off first public offering after the outbreak of

the Persian Gulf War strands a number of its employees in Kuwait.

1996:• WS Atkins Plc goes public on the London Stock Exchange;

currently its shares are at 1,007.00 p6.• Company acquires quantity surveyor Faithful & Gould and

establishes Atmos Ltd. railroad subsidiary.

1997:• Company acquires Opal Engineering from British Rail.

1998:• Company acquires Silk & Frazier but fails attempted

acquisition of Bovis Construction.

1999:• WS Atkins acquires McCarthy's Consulting Engineers,

Lambert Smith Hampton, and The Benham Companies.

2000:• Company secures £1 billion, ten-year facilities management

contract with Telekom South Africa, the company's largest ever contract.

2001:5

http://bluepages.wsatkins.co.uk/data/locations/officelocations/15259/1913878/?version=1 – 13/08/076

? http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ATK.L – 16/08/07 at 9.39am

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• WS Atkins acquires ScanRail from Danish National Railway and Boward Computer Services7.

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Atkins Today

Atkins is the largest engineering consultancy in the UK, the largest multidisciplinary consultancy in Europe and the third largest design company in the world.Their staff includes engineers, architects, surveyors, cost and project managers, planners, management consultants, geologists and experts in IT, telecommunications and environmental management8.

Atkins:o Plans all aspects of its clients’ projects. This involves

conducting studies covering technical, logistical, legal, environmental and financial considerations.

o Designs optimal systems, infrastructures, processes, buildings and civil structures. They develop cutting edge solutions and combine them with tried and tested technologies to achieve an optimal result.

o Enables complex programmes, delivering one-off projects and managing ongoing processes to reduce timescales, cost and disruption.

Atkins has grown considerably over the last few years as can be seen from the graphs below9:

Atkins is doing well in each area of its business. The statistics for 2005 are shown in the table below10.

Area TurnoverDesign and Engineering

Solutions£244m

Highways and Transportation £207m

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Rail £188mChina and Middle East £44m

Management and Project Services

£152m

Asset Management £59mLambert Smith Hampton £60m

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Atkins StructureToday Atkins is composed of four main groups: Transport, Design & Engineering Solutions, Management & Project Services and Equity Investments. Each of these groups then divides further as can be seen in the diagram below11.

TransportThis section encompasses Rail and Highways & Transportation.Highways & Transportation provides a range of services ranging from front end Transport planning studies and advice, through to the comprehensive Design & Site supervision activities12.

Atkins Rail combines unique expertise across all the major rail disciplines;

o civil engineeringo control and systemso electrification and planto propertyo rail vehicle consultancy

with experience in every rail market heavy rail, light rail and metro, and freight13.

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Design and Engineering SolutionsThis covers a few areas:

o Water and EnvironmentThis consultancy covers the whole life cycle from source to sea. Typical projects include flood risk management, water supply and wastewater programmes.The Environment business helps clients focus on improving environmental management and offer solutions at both a strategic and operational level14.

o Engineering SolutionsThis involves providing consultancy to four specialist sectors: Defence, Oil & Gas, Telecommunications and Aerospace15.

o Design SolutionsThis includes architecture, design, surveying, property management, building services and structural engineering. Projects include schools, universities, airports, government buildings, hotels and commercial premises16.

o Design and Programme ManagementAtkins manages complex large scale projects for the built environment which requires high levels of resource management. Often their projects are international such as Durrat Island, Riyadh Landmark Tower and Pantai Mutiara Hotel17.

o Nuclear and PowerThis is split up into Generation and Transmission & Distribution. It draws on these core strengths to manage and construct new-build and asset replacement projects18.

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Management and Project ServicesThis is partly made up of Faithful+Gould. Faithful+Gould is one of the world’s largest project and cost management consultancies, employing over 2,000 staff, with a turnover in excess of £120 million19. In the UK, Faithful+Gould provides independent services in three key areas: consulting, project management and commercial services20.

However, it also includes of:o Management Consultancy

This focuses on helping clients to deliver and realise the value in their strategy. They provide imaginative solutions utilising extensive and proven methodologies, tools and techniques21.

o Asset ManagementThis supplies facilities management services to three major market sectors; financial, leisure and retail, principally in the role of managing agent22.

Equity InvestmentThe Equity Investments segment comprised Lambert Smith Hampton and our interest in PPP/PFI Joint Ventures23. It has recently been announced that WS Atkins has agreed to the sale of its UK-based property agency business Lambert Smith Hampton Limited (‘LSH’) to De Facto 1489 Limited for an enterprise value of £46.5 million, together with earn-out potential for a further £10 million. The sale is subject to certain regulatory approvals and is expected to complete before 31 July 200724.

Chief Executive Keith Clarke said:"This is a significant transaction as we divest this non-core business. I wish the management of LSH every success in taking the business forward. This deal enables the Group to focus on its core businesses as it looks to further develop capabilities in its principal areas of expertise."

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Spanning the GlobeAtkins has grown significantly since it began back in 1938. It now has offices around the world in countries such as: Australia, Canada, China, India, South Africa, and USA. Atkins also has offices throughout Europe and over 160 in the United Kingdom25.

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Most of the permanent staff are professionally or technically qualified. They also speak a wide range of languages, which is just as well with the number of offices abroad. The chances are that whichever country you are doing work in; somebody at Atkins will be able to help you with the language. Languages that people can speak range from French and German to Gujarati and Urdu27.

Awards and AchievementsOver the years Atkins has won many prestigious awards. Its’ recent achievements include:

o Being named the most popular graduate employer in its sector for 2 years running28.

o Being named in the Sunday Times’ “20 Best Big Companies to Work For 2007”29.

o Being named in the Times’ “Top 50 Companies Where Women Want to Work 2006”30.

o Construction Consultant of the Year 200531. Two years ago it also became one of 17 companies that are partnered with the Power Academy scheme32.

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Atkins’ StaffAtkins has won numerous awards because of how well it treats its staff.Surveys are carried out annually so that management and senior management can monitor staff satisfaction and act on feedback. The firm’s leadership makes an effort to interact with staff, from working alongside them at recruitment fairs to enjoying company social events. Staff say that senior managers truly live the values of the organisation.

Staff feel that the company really tries to help them. A wide and flexible portfolio of training courses is available to all employees. Management and graduate development centres and senior manager development programmes ensure that those staff who are ready for more responsibility are not overlooked. Employees also feel that the experience they gain from the job is valuable for their future.

Social activities include sailing, dragon boat racing, archery, theatre visits and trips to France and Italy. Colleagues care for each other and have confidence in each other’s abilities33.

Atkins’ CharitiesAs well as taking steps to become more environmentally-friendly, including adopting a “green” tariff for electricity in all the UK businesses, the company supports a number of charities. Last year’s nominated causes were:

o WaterAido Register of Engineers for Disaster Reliefo Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Association.

Atkins encourages its’ staff to make donations regularly from their wages and organises events to fundraise for the charities34.

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The FutureAtkins has grown greatly in the past and looks all set to continue to do so. With new offices being set up and evermore challenging jobs being taken on the company has a lot to look forward to.

Atkins is taking steps to tackle the nuclear skills shortage. Faced with a recognised skills shortage in the nuclear industry, the Atkins engineering consultancy is partnering with the University of Surrey to develop a nuclear training academy. Atkins has over the last 30 years become a major player in the UK's nuclear industry, with

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? http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/WS-Atkins-Plc-Company-History.html - 13/08/078

? New Civil Engineer Consultants File, 2006; Swedish Federation of Consultant Engineers & Architects, 2005; Engineering News Record, 2006 – 16/08/079

?

http://bluepages.wsatkins.co.uk/localdivisions/2582398/4969144/2589700/2590006/2595165/7439301_ws_atkins_plc_prelim.pdf - 13/08/0710

? Atkins Fact Book 2005 - http://www.investis.com/atkinsglobal/finperf/presentations/factbook0506/2803.pdf - 16/08/0711

?

http://bluepages.wsatkins.co.uk/businessdevelopment/4220/54809/1193643/4635244_companyorg_oct_04.ppt - 08/08/0712

? http://bluepages.wsatkins.co.uk/localgroups/1380816/ - 13/08/0713

? http://www.atkinsglobal.com/markets/rail/ - 13/08/0714

? http://bluepages.wsatkins.co.uk/localunits/1643776/6622719/6760644/ - 13/08/0715

? http://bluepages.wsatkins.co.uk/localunits/1643776/6622719/6760644/ - 13/08/0716

? http://bluepages.wsatkins.co.uk/localunits/1643776/6622719/6760644/ - 13/08/0717

? http://bluepages.wsatkins.co.uk/localunits/1643776/6622719/6760644/ - 13/08/0718

? http://bluepages.wsatkins.co.uk/localunits/1643776/6622719/6760644/ - 13/08/0719

? http://www.fgould.com – 13/08/0720

? http://www.fgould.com/uk - 13/08/0721

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particular interests in all aspects of decommissioning and the sensitive issues associated with the disposal of nuclear waste, as well as the huge potential in the new generation of nuclear power stations35.

It has also been acknowledged that there is a great shortage of junior engineers which is a big problem as many current engineers will be retiring in the next 10 to 20 years. Atkins is putting a great deal of effort into making sure its’ graduate scheme is one of the best in the industry to attract young engineers. Becoming a

? http://bluepages.wsatkins.co.uk/localunits/1380826/1434277/7231437/?version=1 – 13/08/0722

? http://bluepages.wsatkins.co.uk/localunits/1380820/ - 13/08/0723

?

http://bluepages.wsatkins.co.uk/localdivisions/2582398/4969144/2589700/6349994/6350005/7473124_atkins_annual_report.pdf - 13/08/0724

? http://ir.atkinsglobal.com/atkinsglobal/news/releases/archive/2007-06-26a/ - 13/08/0725

?

http://bluepages.wsatkins.co.uk/localdivisions/2582398/4969144/6421106/ - 07/08/0726

? http://www.atkinsdesign.com/html/contact.htm - 07/08/0727

? http://www.atkinsdesign.com/html/contact.htm - 07/08/0728

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http://www.atkinsglobal.com/careers/graduates/aboutus/atkinsscoopsgraduateemployerawar/ - 07/08/0729

? http://bluepages.wsatkins.co.uk/localdivisions/2582398/4969144/ - 02/08/0730

?

http://www.atkinsglobal.com/careers/graduates/aboutus/weencouragevisionproblemsolvinga/ - 07/08/0731

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http://www.atkinsglobal.com/careers/graduates/aboutus/thesundaytimesbestbigcompaniesto/ - 07/08/0732

? http://www.iee.org/poweracademy/atkins.cfm - 02/08/0733

?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/career_and_jobs/best_100_companies/best_20_big_companies/article1473470.ece - 07/08/07

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partner of the Power Academy Scheme is another way in which Atkins is investing in students studying engineering.

Atkins has also recently opened new offices in Bangalore. Their office at Sharjah provides a range of professional design services in the following markets:

o Building Serviceso Structuralo Civilo Geospatialo Watero IT Engineering Systemso Geotechnicalo Aviationo Oil and Gaso Highways and Transportationo Rail36

They have over 200 staff comprising of Design Engineers, CAD Staff and Administration on their payroll37.

So with these and other great opportunities on the horizon, Atkins will definitely continue to provide ‘everyday brilliance’.

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? http://bluepages.wsatkins.co.uk/aboutthecompany/1180649/6162772/?version=1 – 08/08/0735

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http://www2.theiet.org/oncomms/sector/power/SectionNews/Object/741AAAFD-A453-DE71-C66058A11A1A7266 - 07/08/0736

? http://www.atkinsglobal.com/markets/india/ourwork/ - 09/08/0737

? http://www.naukri.com/gpw/atkins/index.htm - 09/08/07

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References

Each reference has the website used and the date that it was looked at.

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