COWI sets new growth record

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Jens Højgaard Christoffersen, group CEO at COWI.

COWI is the latest construction consultancy to record healthy financial results.

International consultancy group COWI is the latest construction sector company to report glowing figures in their annual results.

Investments in sustainable solutions in energy, infrastructure and buildings accelerated in 2022, which was also reflected in COWI’s record-high organic growth of 10.9%.

Despite the war in Ukraine, a European energy crisis and high inflation rates, the public and private sectors continued to invest in green solutions for the future in 2022. COWI has been active in many of these projects and their new FUTURE-NOW strategy launch at the beginning of 2022 which aims to shape a sustainable and liveable world, seems to be bearing fruit.

Turnover at the group grew by 12% to 7.3bn DKK, compared to 6.6bn DKK in 2021. Profitability increased from 3.3% in 2021 to 4.2% in 2022. And cash flow improved by 153m DKK in 2022 to 38m DKK.

Jens Højgaard Christoffersen, group CEO, commented: “Sustainability has become a competitive edge to everyone. Our commitment to promoting sustainable solutions resonates strongly with our customers’ ambitions and challenges. In that light, I’m pleased that we have strengthened our customer relations and joined forces to create value for our customers and societies, the future generations and ourselves.”

The company’s performance was also reflected in a large increase in the number of employees. In 2022, COWI Group welcomed the equivalent of 691 full-time employees, corresponding to a growth of 10% and now has 7,501 employees.

“Indeed, our goal of shaping a greener future acted as a magnet to attract and retain employees. That’s highly encouraging when considering that everyone craves the same pool of talent. Thanks to this, we have boosted our competitive strength and are able to accelerate our growth ambitions,” added Christoffersen.

All of COWI’s business units saw growth, especially the wind and renewable energy business, which delivered a growth of more than 25% last year. In particular, growth was driven by COWI’s business in Denmark, Norway, North America and the UK.

According to the company, that growth is set to continue in 2023. “Predicting how the market will develop has become far more difficult,” said Christoffersen. “And given the lurking recession and a new geopolitical situation, it would probably be prudent to exercise financial caution in certain areas.

“However, we cannot pause climate change and from what I’m seeing, the public and private sectors will continue their high investment level in the green transition in the coming year. In that perspective, we expect to continue our growth, albeit on a slightly lower level than in 2022,” Christoffersen said.