Witteveen+Bos achieves good results in 2016

The revenue realised by international engineering and consultancy firm Witteveen+Bos N.V. continues to show an upward trend, from nearly EUR 130 million in 2015 to EUR 137 million in 2016. The net result amounted to EUR 15.7 million, demonstrating the company’s financial health. The Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board – which was appointed for the first time in 2016 – both look back on a successful anniversary year. The annual results for 2016 will be officially adopted at the General Meeting of Shareholders to be held on 5 April 2017.

Results
In 2016 Witteveen+Bos celebrated its 70th anniversary. There were many highlights in the year under review: we won the prestigious ‘De Vernufteling’ innovation award with the ‘Building with Nature’ mangrove project in Java, on which we are working within the Ecoshape consortium, we applied innovative digital solutions such as online residents’ participation, and we organised various anniversary activities for employees and business relations, with great success. From our 19 offices all over the world, we worked on over 3,500 ongoing and new water, infrastructure, environment and construction projects. In 2016 this resulted in a total revenue of EUR 137 million, EBITDA of EUR 23.5 million (2015: EUR 21.3 million) and a net profit margin of 11.5 % (2015: 11.1 %).

Sustainable solutions
Managing Director Karin Sluis is pleased with the company’s results: ‘Healthy financial results are an important precondition that enables us to contribute to the realisation of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, from clean drinking water to renewable energy and resilient infrastructure. We can achieve the greatest impact through our projects. In 2016 we therefore devoted extensive attention to the application of our sustainable design principles. We use this tool in all our projects to flesh out the possibilities for applying the ‘Building with Nature’ approach, as well as climate adaptation, circular design and stakeholder engagement. In addition, we promote diversity and talent development within the organisation and thus contribute to the Sustainable Development Goal of decent work and economic growth.’ Ongoing efforts to make the company’s business operations more sustainable resulted, among other things, in realisation of the CO2 emissions reduction target for 2016. The firm is on track to achieve its overall target of 30 % emissions reduction by 2020 (compared to reference year 2007). Witteveen+Bos also retained full certification (in the form of the CO2 Awareness Certificate) at Level 5 of the CO2 Performance Ladder.

New director
Henk Nieboer has been a member of the Board of Directors of Witteveen+Bos since 12 April 2006. He turned 55 in 2017 and will therefore make way for a successor in accordance with the company’s articles of association. ‘The past few years have been a period of solid growth for Witteveen+Bos. From our strong home base in the Netherlands, we now operate worldwide with offices in more than ten countries. It has been a great pleasure to make my own contribution to the growth and internationalisation of our company.’ Witteveen+Bos previously announced that Stephan van der Biezen has been nominated to succeed Henk Nieboer. This proposed appointment will be submitted for approval to the annual General Meeting of Shareholders, which will be held on 5 April 2017.