黑洞社区

One of Spain鈥檚 largest construction consultants, Ayesa, is targeting UK expansion including HS2 work in spite of Brexit.

In an exclusive interview with 黑洞社区, Tom Cullen, the 鈧�232m-turnover (拢201m) firm鈥檚 UK country manager, said the London-based company expects to grow from nine to 50 UK staff by the end of the year, as it seeks to capitalise on UK engineering skills shortages.

The firm has also hired Douglas McCormick, former Sweett chief executive and Atkins rail boss, as a consultant to help steer its expansion drive.

Seville-based Ayesa has 3,700 staff globally and offices in Poland, across Latin America, north Africa, India and south-east Asia.

Ayesa has worked on major high-speed rail projects in Spain, Morocco and India, which Cullen believes will give it an edge when bidding for HS2 work.

He said: 鈥淲e have international high-speed rail experience, which people here don鈥檛 have.鈥�

Ayesa is already supporting contracting joint venture LFM 鈥� comprising Laing O鈥橰ourke, FCC and J Murphy & Sons 鈥� on bids for billions of pounds鈥� worth of HS2 civils contracts.

The consultant launched in the UK in London in 2014 and has won work on the Merseylink bridge and with clients including aeroplane manufacturer Airbus and gas infrastructure client CLH.

Cullen said Ayesa was largely undeterred by Brexit: 鈥淲e know there鈥檚 going to be a place for us in the UK - although it might mean more admin [to obtain visas].

鈥淭he UK has many ambitious projects coming up and they鈥檙e going to need engineers.鈥�

He added that the UK remained an attractive place to do business: 鈥淚n many ways it鈥檚 a stamp of approval. If you can work here [in the UK], you can work anywhere.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a great place to do business from and you have access to all the financial institutions.鈥�

Ayesa joins a host of major Spanish firms targeting HS2 work, including fellow engineer Sener and contracting giants Dragados, Ferrovial, FCC and Acciona.

It is also the latest EU-based consultant to set its sights on UK expansion in spite of Brexit, after German 鈧�285m-turnover (拢262m) Drees & Sommer revealed to 黑洞社区 in November it was launching offices in London and Birmingham.

Cullen said Ayesa would stand apart from competitors as a 鈥減art-engineering, part-technology company鈥�, offering services including software expertise, and extensive experience using BIM.