Sector spotlight: Engineering

Fact:

• 26,600 people in Bristol have jobs in aerospace and advanced engineering

• The State of Engineering report 2015 found that the UK’s engineering businesses have the potential to contribute an extra £27 bn to the economy each year.

Bristol has a strong history of engineering that extends beyond Brunel. We’re known for our aerospace sector yet there is a big family of large engineering companies active in non-flight fields too.

Arup is an independent, employee-owned firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists offering a suite of professional services. Its Bristol office has been open since 1974 and employs close to 300 staff, many of whom work on the office’s key areas of structural and rail engineering.

Keen to develop talent in house, they have hired around 80 graduates in the last five years who have, with the wider team, contributed to major local projects, including the Bristol Water’s proposed second reservoir in Cheddar, GWR’s main line electrification, the refurbishment of City Hall, and – further afield – the new Abu Dhabi International Airport.

Arup has partnered with fellow engineering and project management consultancy Atkins based in Aztec West on the A303 project to redivert traffic around Stonehenge.

Last year Atkins turned posted global revenues of £1.86 bn from a global staff of more than 18,000, 860 of which are employed in Bristol.

Renishaw is another giant with local offices, with more than half of Renishaw’s global workforce of 4,000 people located in the Bristol region. Last year it turned over a record £495m in engineering and science technologies.  An example of Bristol’s outward facing businesses, 95 per cent of Renishaw’s revenue came from exports last year.

Locally, the company is working on some high profile projects. At Southmead Hospital and Bristol Children’s hospital Renishaw is helping to pioneer new neurosurgical procedures, and for the Bloodhound supersonic car team it will be 3D printing the car’s titanium nose cone and steering wheel to match the hands of driver Andy Green.

Skanska is a major local player in the civil engineering field, that “developing, constructing, improving and investing” in Bristol’s highway networks, schools and offices.

In 2006 Skanska partnered with Bristol City Council and Local Education Partnership to deliver thousands of extra school spaces across the city. The business was also responsible for the redevelopment of number 66 on the corner of Queen Square and King Street and it is responsible for maintaining and upgrading the M5, M4, M49 and M32. The company is now working with the city council on the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone.

Multidisciplinary engineering practice CampbellReith has one of its five UK offices in Bristol. It has more than doubled in size over the last two years and works on projects locally and internationally that contributed to a practice turnover of £12m last year.

A partner-owned, independent practice, CampbellReith works across a broad range of sectors. Schools, hospitals, commercial buildings, defence structures, large-scale regeneration projects, infrastructure and high rises – its projects are wide ranging.  

“The civil engineering and construction sector in general has seen a massive amount of consolidation over the past decade with the likes of WSP, Aecom and Arcadis acquiring smaller or niche consultancies or merging with direct competitors to add to their ever expanding turnover and increase profits and dividends to their shareholders,” says partner Jamie Siggers.

“There were some expectations that the medium-sized consultancies would struggle to survive, competing against these giants or locally against much smaller practices with low overheads, but we are finding the opposite to be true.

“Our order book for the next 12 months is already showing sustained growth.”

One of the many smaller engineering companies in the city, HiETA has grown rapidly since it formed in 2012. From an office at the Bristol & Bath Science Park, the 25 engineer-strong specialist in additive manufacturing, otherwise known as 3D printing, has grown from a one-man hot desk. They work with clients including the MoD and Innovate UK to develop components – many 3D printed – for automotive, Formula 1, defence, aerospace and energy firms.

Perceptions about the job opportunities available vary, with recruiters naturally more positive than employers.

“The recruitment market has experienced a buoyancy across production and manufacturing sectors,” says Varinder Kandola of recruitment consultants Huxley Engineering who identifies much more potential for speculative applications from skilled candidates than previously – 75 per cent were filled in this way last year.

“Businesses now have the required forecasts to increase their skills base in areas that would previously have been too risky.”

Read more: Sector spotlight: Aerospace