Over 110 employees from WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, the recently merged global professional services and engineering consultancy, have come together in their first joint office in Glasgow.

The move to 110 Queen Street marks a major milestone for the combined business, which expects to buck the gloomy industry trend of tough business conditions through a 35 per cent increase in its staff to around 150 people over the next five years.

The projections match expansion across all sectors within the business following the delivery of major projects across Scotland, and this integration will further consolidate the firm’s presence across the central belt.

WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff’s teams are currently working on a number of professional services and engineering consultancy services for private and public sector clients including Glasgow City Council. Key recent projects include Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Glasgow and the Commonwealth Games’ Athlete’s Village.

Glasgow director Pete Dunbar said: “Since the two firms merged, we now have a combined staff of 34,500 people in around 500 offices across 39 countries but today Glasgow becomes the first Scottish city where the two businesses operate from the same office.”

A big emphasis has been put on recruiting fresh, young talent and boosting the number of female engineers since the two firms merged in March this year, with one in seven (16 per cent) of the Glasgow staff being graduate engineers and almost a third being female.

Pete Dunbar added: “Combining our workforce brings together two recognised talent pools that creates huge potential for growth and innovation working across local, national and international projects in Scotland.

“We have already seen a significant increase in the volume of work we are getting in, particularly in the central belt of Scotland, which contrasts what is happening nationally with many Scottish engineering companies struggling to secure work.

“Our success and strong track record has driven demand for new staff across the property, infrastructure and environment sectors. This not only means greater opportunity for our people to broaden and develop their careers but our clients also get the very best this county has to offer.”

WSP’s office was previously based at Foley House, Centurion Business Park and Parsons Brinckerhoff’s was at The Athenaeum on Nelson Mandela Place in Glasgow.