Transforming civil engineering and transport in Wales

Capita Gwent Consultancy now manages £350m of spending on some 1,400 projects and transportation initiatives. These include substantial highway projects, PFIs, rail and Community Regeneration Schemes and annual community initiatives that, for example, are changing school children's attitudes to road safety.

The success of the partnership stems from our ability to work not only for, but alongside authority staff. The joint venture operates a Quality Management System designed to encourage creativity and innovation and build on past project experience. This culture of continuous improvement is then introduced to individual projects, ensuring the performance improvement cycle continues.

In just one year, we turned a projected £640,000 loss under the old arrangements into £400k profit, while also cutting service costs by 5%. We’re now on course for a 27% increase in operating profits: good news for service users as 70% of profits are reinvested. The partnership continues to grow and aims to double in size by 2012.

"The consultancy has been one of the success stories in recent years – an impressive example to Welsh-based professional service companies."