PM Group 2020 profit jumps 30% amid pharma project surge

PM Group, the Irish-based international engineering and construction management company, saw its operating profit jump 30 per cent last year to €34.8 million, driven by a surge in activity among its pharmaceutical clients.

Overall revenue, including pass through revenue – where the group carries procurement and contract costs of behalf of clients – rose by 16 per cent to €398 million in 2020. Fee income accounts for about 80 per cent of total turnover.

PM Group has a workforce of 3,200 people in Europe, North America and Asia, providing complex design, construction and delivery solutions to clients in pharma, food, mission critical, medtech and advanced manufacturing technology sectors. More than half of the employees are based in the Republic.

The group is employee-owned with more than 1,000 people holding shares in the business, up 15 per cent on prior year. Group chief executive David Murphy said that the business, which moved in 2015 to buy back a 25 per cent stake in itself from UK consultancy group Amec Foster Wheeler, is interested in carrying out bolt-on deals, particularly in the US and countries of Austria, Germany and Switzerland in Europe.

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“Despite the enormous challenges posed by the global pandemic, our clients have continued to invest in developing their facilities and capacity right around the world. Many of the sectors and projects with which we are currently engaged, are actively dealing with the consequences of the pandemic,” said Mr Murphy.

“Therapeutics and vaccine manufacturing, food and beverage processing, medical devices and diagnostics as well as data centres are attracting significant investment to meet evolving market needs. Indeed, pharma is a powerhouse sector for us with two-thirds of overall revenues generated in 2020 associated with the sector.”

Clients

Active clients last year included Nivea owner Beiersdorf, pharmaceutical groups MSD, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bayer and AstraZeneca, drinks giant Pernod Ricard and sports gear group Nike.

PM Group said that it is creating 400 new jobs this year across a range of disciplines including architecture, engineering, construction, data analytics, project controls and environmental, with half of the positions set to be based in Ireland.

Last month, the group appointed a new chair, Brendan Jennings, who succeeds long standing chair and Director, Dan Flinter. Prior to joining the board, Brendan was chief executive of Deloitte Ireland.

In April, the group appointed Rosita Fennell, an internal candidate, to succeed Larry Westman as chief financial officer.