NIRAS showed strong performance in 2021 with growth in both revenue and bottom line

Growth, trust and commitment

2021 was the first year in a new three-year strategy period, and CEO Carsten Toft Boesen, looks back, with satisfaction on a year in which the business has delivered solid progress in a number of strategic focus areas.

“NIRAS is fundamentally dependent on the trust of our customers and the commitment of our employees. It is very positive that we are on the growth track once again. I am especially impressed with our employees and partners who, despite another year with COVID and social distancing, managed to maintain good working relationships and deliver quality to the projects,” begins Carsten Toft Boesen.

Organic growth is a key strategic objective for NIRAS and the company can look back on a year in which total revenue growth was just under 13% – of which just over half was organic.

“Through organic growth, we aim to increase our revenues by DKK 500 million by 2024, and this year's organic growth of 6.5% delivers on the milestone objective for 2021. The remaining growth for the year comes primarily from the acquisition of the pharma consultancy company Alfa Nordic, which means supplementation of competence and doubling of the pharma and life science area in NIRAS,” explains CEO Carsten Toft Boesen.

2021 not only saw a significant increase in turnover, profits for the year (EBITA) have also improved from DKK 116 million in 2020 to DKK 132 million in 2021. This has been achieved through growth and increased productivity, while there was only a slight increase in costs. Particularly good performance was seen the business areas focused on Construction, Process Industry and NIRAS Norway, while NIRAS Sweden and parts of the Danish infrastructure market have been more challenged.

Excellent service and quality in collaboration with our customers, including the development and delivery of projects across disciplines and geographical areas, is a key strategic focus for NIRAS.

“One of the strongest examples of the year is our many large Norwegian infrastructure projects, where project managers and experts drawn from our offices in Norway, Sweden and Denmark have been working together with customers to ensure the right solution. Collaboration across the board is necessary to create capacity and provides a powerful network for our employees' professional development,” says CEO Carsten Toft Boesen.

Demand for more sustainable solutions and digital innovation

NIRAS’s activities within Development Aid, Environment and Supply, which accounted for 41% of the year's turnover in 2021, are largely driven by the demands for more sustainable societal development. In recent years, this agenda has become particularly topical within construction and other industries where it is given impetus by investors’ and consumers’ desires for sustainable production and products. Some of the best examples of the year are the construction of Coca Cola-owned Innocents' new CO2-neutral factory in Rotterdam and the world's largest brewing group, AB InBev's initiative to benchmark their global production in relation to relevant world goals.

“Sustainable solutions for our customers are the core of our mission, and in close collaboration with customers and knowledge partners, we invest in creating an overview, transparency and documentation for the effect and choice of solutions. Of course, we also have an internal responsibility to minimise our emissions and maximise our contribution to sustainability. It is thus our ambition to become CO2-neutral in scopes 1 and 2 by 2030, and we are also working actively to limit our scope 3 impact via our procurement policy,” says Carsten Toft Boesen.

Digital innovation in close collaboration with customers and employees is one of NIRAS’ four strategic focus areas.

“We have invested in developing 23 digital ideas and related technology. Most ideas are conceived at the crossing point between customers, employees and technology experts and, in addition to sheer enthusiasm for the technology, are impelled by ambitions to make things smarter – i.e. better and/or cheaper. The development projects have brought about the desired results in all cases and have become part of the delivery model of the future, while some ideas contain the potential for actual digital business models,” says CEO Carsten Toft Boesen.

More employees and the green transition expected to contribute to growth in 2022

Looking forward, the strategy is for further organic growth, although the war in Ukraine, combined with rising commodity prices and interest rates, is creating great uncertainty, especially in the company's more economically sensitive markets.

Efforts for more sustainable development have resulted in some historically ambitious plans for a radical transformation of the energy sector away from fossil fuels. The coming years will see massive investments in the conversion to green energy and NIRAS wants to be an attractive partner in the transformation of the energy sector.

“We want to play an important role in the transition to renewable energy supply. Among other things, we already have a really good grip on environmental studies and permits and have exciting projects related to electrification, wind, solar, sector switching, PtX and the Energy Island in the North Sea,” says CEO Carsten Toft Boesen.

NIRAS is also continuing its efforts to ensure an attractive workplace. The number of employees has grown in 2021, and Carsten Toft Boesen is particularly pleased that more employees are choosing to return to NIRAS.

“We do a lot to be an attractive workplace so we can motivate our employees to continue in NIRAS as well as attract new colleagues. We must also recognise, however, that new differentiating initiatives are very quickly becoming the industry standard. It is crucial that we have exciting projects and talented colleagues and offer an attractive, flexible framework for individual development. Perhaps most important of all, though, is that we have a culture where mutual help and support improves us all. At the same time, we need to be careful to ensure that our processes and systems support the projects and cross-the-board collaboration, and that our efforts and performance targets do not create barriers in this respect,” says CEO Carsten Toft Boesen.