Good momentum maintained into 2023, the Group’s 50th year in business.
Highlights
| FY2022 |
Investment |
- Overall revenue up 29% to €612m
- Operating profit in line with prior year at €44m
- Net assets up 9% to €158m
- Staff numbers at 3,500, incl. 150 graduate recruits.
|
- Acquisition of Milestone Solutions in June 2023
- 5th USA office announcement in North Carolina
|
PM Group, the Irish headquartered international project delivery company, has today announced its financial results for the year ended 31 December 2022. PM Group achieved operating profit of €44 million in 2022, in line with 2021. This performance was delivered following a strong increase in underlying fee revenue of 14%.
PM Group reported overall revenue, which includes pass-through revenue, of €612 million in 2022, up 29%. Pass-through revenue is where the Group carries procurement and contract costs on behalf of clients. Underlying fee revenue is a more accurate performance indicator for the Group.
The €44 million operating profit was achieved following significant strategic investment in international expansion and digital infrastructure against a backdrop of increased costs and the impact of inflation.
Net assets increased 9% to €158 million which, combined with minimal debt, underpins the Group’s capacity to drive further development and growth.
PM Group’s total workforce across Europe, North America and Asia is currently at 3,500 people, 1,200 of whom are employee shareholders in the business. PM Group hired a record 150 graduates in 2022 and anticipates a similar number of graduate recruits from the class of 2023.
The Group’s international presence has also grown with expansion in Europe and the USA. Following the opening of the Group’s fourth US office in Philadelphia in 2021, a planned new office will open in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina in July 2023 providing a fifth USA location.
PM Group is currently working on a range of complex projects across multiple countries, providing design, construction and project delivery solutions to clients in the pharmaceutical, food, mission-critical, med-tech and advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) sectors.
2022 represented the second year of PM Group’s 2025 Strategy, Delivering Our Future Together, which is focused on continued growth in core markets as well as geographical and sectoral expansion. In 2022, 51% of PM Group’s activity was international, with 49% of activity for multi-national clients located in Ireland.
PM Group’s strategy has sustainability at its core and in 2022 the Company announced CarbonNeutral® certification. In 2023, PM Group have committed to the Science Based Target (SBTi) of Net Zero
A key part of the strategy was to expand the range of integrated services PM Group can offer its clients. The company recently announced the acquisition of automation and digital systems firm, Milestone Solutions. Milestone specialises in implementing digital technologies to manage and optimise complex manufacturing systems for operational efficiency and regulatory compliance in the life sciences and food sectors.
PM Group also announced the appointment of Anthony O’Rourke as Chief Executive Officer Designate. Anthony will succeed current CEO, Dave Murphy, when Dave retires in December 2023. Anthony is a member of the Board and is PM Group’s Operations Director for Ireland, the UK and Europe.
Dave Murphy, CEO of PM Group, commented on the publication of its financial results:
“The strong operational and financial performance of our business in 2022 is testament to a fantastic team of people right across the organisation. The year was not without its challenges with inflation and rising costs. However, the quality of our work and the resilience of our clients sustained our revenue growth while maintaining operational profit at last year’s strong level. All of our growth was organic in 2022.
“2022 saw increased investment by our clients and over 50% of our work is now international. While Europe continues to be a key market for us with 28% of overall activity located there, we have further increased our USA presence through the expansion of our Philadelphia office, to support the growth and opportunities we have seen there. We’ve also recently announced that we will open an office in North Carolina. The Research Triangle Region of North Carolina is a major hub for life sciences research, innovation and technology. This will be our 5th office in the USA.
“The first quarter of 2023 saw a lot of the momentum we had built during 2022 sustained, however, the external environment is undoubtedly more challenging. With issues such as higher interest rates and high inflation, we have seen more caution. However, many of our multinational clients continue to invest in major capital projects across key markets.
“PM Group provides employees with the opportunity to work on leading-edge projects for many of the world’s best-known companies, while also having the opportunity to become a shareholder in the company. We are unique amongst our peer companies, with over 1,200 employee shareholders who benefit from the success of our business. We look forward to adding more talented people to our team in 2023.”
Chairperson, Brendan Jennings, said:
“Everyone working with PM Group across the world deserves great credit for our 2022 performance. In particular, we are proud of our continued commitment to health, safety and wellbeing excellence.
“2022 marks the second year of the Delivering Our Future Together strategy and in financial terms, we are already ahead of the strategic plan at this stage. A key component of that strategy is ESG, and I am very encouraged by the progress we are making while continuing to deliver operationally and financially. We have been implementing ambitious plans to reduce our environmental impact and the impact of our clients, through the capital projects we design and deliver.
“Finally, we were delighted to see the recruitment of a record number of graduates in 2022. 40% of our graduate intake during the year was female, which we see growing further in the years to come.”
Review of 2022 Operations
PM Group’s Irish operation accounts for 49% of the business and has continued to expand to support project delivery in Ireland, as well as the United States and Europe. Ireland is also a centre of design excellence for a range of new initiatives benefitting the international network. Major clients in 2022 included AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, J&J, MSD, Pfizer, Sanofi and Eli Lilly.
The UK recorded revenue growth despite a challenging local economic environment. In 2022, the UK substantially increased international work supporting projects requiring process expertise in Belgium, Switzerland and Poland. The Company grew Managed Services and Outsourced Technical Services in the UK.
PM Group has continued to secure and deliver significant contracts across mainland Europe. The German market was a particular highlight, winning several significant large scale design projects in 2022. In Switzerland, PM Group saw its staff numbers increase to over 50.
The Belgian operation continues to develop and 2022 saw the opening of PM Group’s second office in Brussels. The Group has expanded its Belgian service offering with new Managed Services and Construction Services contracts. Operations in Poland were materially impacted by the war in Ukraine alongside high levels of inflation. The reduction in local workload was offset by Poland supporting the wider group. In Denmark, PM Group is concluding the delivery of hyperscale data centre projects.
In the USA, PM Group continued to grow. In 2022, it widened its business portfolio and recruited new talent to its expanding team. The company completed projects for Bayer, Thermo Fisher, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi, Biomarin, Resilience and EMD Serono.
In Asia, PM Group delivered another year of growth despite challenging economic headwinds caused by the global macro-economic situation and the pandemic. Strong performance in China was due to PM Group’s activity across life sciences, food, distillery and AMT projects for clients including MSD, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi, Nike, Pernod Ricard, Lamb Weston, McCain, L’Oréal and Diageo.
In Singapore, PM Group worked on projects for Thermo Fisher, Sanofi, Amgen, PepsiCo and Abbott. PM Group celebrated 10 years in India in 2022 by opening its new digitally enabled, state-of-the-art design office in Bangalore and grew its team to over 150.
Outlook 2023:
Following a robust performance in 2022, the positive momentum has been maintained in 2023 with a strong backlog.
Despite remaining cautious of rising inflation, interest rate increases and the potential impacts of geopolitical uncertainties, the outlook for 2023 is positive and the Group is positioned strongly to deliver on its 2025 strategy.
Sustainability remains a key focus for PM Group as it continues to develop its near and long-term (2030 and 2050) carbon reduction targets.