Wavestone grows revenues to €422 million in latest fiscal year

International consulting firm Wavestone has booked 8% revenue growth last year in local currency, lifting its group turnover to €422 million. 

Growth was achieved through organic growth and an acquisition, with the purchase of IT consultancy WGroup in the US more than doubling its operations in the globe’s largest consulting market. In North America, Wavestone's business now generates revenues to the tune of €30 million, operating from offices in New York and Philadelphia.

The bolt-on continued a buy-and-build campaign for Wavestone, kick-started with the acquisition of Kurt Salmon's European activities (excluding Retail & Consumer Goods consulting; bought by Accenture) as well as the Financial Services and CIO Advisory practices of Kurt Salmon in the United States.

Since then, the French-origin management and technology consultancy also acquired IT specialist Xceed Group in April 2018, and French supply chain specialist Metis Consulting at the end of 2018. 

Over the 2019/20 fiscal year, Wavestone saw its utilisation rate drop by 4% compared to the year previous to an average of 71%. However, a rise in the average daily rate from €872 in 2018/19 to €878 in 2019/20 across its headcount of over 3,000 employees meant that revenues were up. At the end of March, Wavestone had 3,498 employees, compared with 3,094 a year earlier. 

Against the backdrop of the Covid-19-induced downturn, Wavestone's start of the 2020/21 fiscal year has been slow, with business activity in April at between 15% to 20% lower compared to pre-lockdown performance. In May the results are not expected to become any better, said Chief Executive Officer Pascal Imbert in a statement accompanying the company’s financial results. 

Beyond the short term, Imbert said that the consulting firm is “preparing to face a severely degraded situation” in the coming months and is taking appropriate measures to navigate the forecasted downturn.