A NATIONAL consultancy group with a huge presence in North Yorkshire today reported a 47 per cent leap in profits.

Mouchel, which manages and advises on the building of highways, docks, power stations and other infrastructure projects, reported that many of its 75 North Yorkshire staff stand to gain from the boom. They are mostly based in Racecourse Lane, Northallerton, with smaller offices in Skipton and Pickering.

Up to 87 per cent of the group's overall 1,270 employees either own or have an interest in the company's shares, which are likely to react to the pre-tax profits boost from £2.4 million last year to £3.5 million this year.

Turnover for Mouchel, which works in partnership with North Yorkshire County Council, also increased from £55.6 million to £62.4 million.

Many of the Northallerton staff are professional and administrative people who transferred from North Yorkshire County Council when the corporation hived off its road maintenance and property management services to Mouchel on a five year contract in 1999. Among its ongoing projects is a multi-million commission from the county council to design and build trunk road schemes in North Yorkshire, including locations with poor accident records on the A64, A629 and A63.

The latest growth spurt is thought to be due largely to extension of its services combined with improvements in the group's commercial and operational management.

Jim Harding, Mouchel's chairman and chief executive, said: "New services now account for more than half of our turnover, compared with only 40 per cent a year ago.

"We now provide a broad range of business and technical services - from strategic advice, planning and project delivery through to maintenance and operational support of clients' infrastructure assets for their whole-life cycle."

By exploiting its expertise in infrastructure and support services, Mouchel had become a leading force in Public Finance Initiatives (PFI) as well as public-private partnerships markets over the past three years, both as an adviser to central and local government and as a long-term service provider.

"With the continuing increase in contract opportunities, we are confident that we will achieve further significant growth next year," said Mr Harding.