Orange County’s top engineering firms with headquarters or significant operations here have recovered from a 1.5% drop in billings last year, posting a 1.7% increase in local billings during the 12-month period ended June 30.
The 37 firms had a three-year streak of improved billings prior to 2014.
This week’s Business Journal list features OC’s largest engineering firms, which collectively reported $2.7 billion in OC billings. Their companywide revenue added up to $75.3 billion during the period.
Seventeen companies said their billings generated in the county increased, four firms posted declines, two were flat, and the Business Journal estimated figures for the remaining 14 firms.
Together the firms employed 1,227 licensed engineers, up 6.4% from a year earlier.
• The top three firms—No. 1 Irving, Texas-based Fluor Corp., No. 2 Englewood, Colo.- based CH2M Hill Cos., and No. 3 Los Angeles-based AECOM—held their ranks.
Two of the three reported declines in companywide billings despite the high rankings.
Fluor Corp. has an office in Aliso Viejo where the Business Journal estimates it has 301 local employees, 199 of them being licensed engineers. Companywide billings for the 12-month period were the highest on the list by a large margin at $21.5 billion, though that was down 21.3% from the previous year.
CH2M reported a 5% decrease in companywide billings but increased its local billings by 0.5% from $493.3 million to $495.8 million.
AECOM reported taking in $74.3 million in OC—a 0.3% decrease from last year’s numbers—but had a 140% increase in companywide billings during the same period.
The firm jumped from $7.9 billion in companywide billings during the list period to $19 billion. The increase is due mostly to AECOM’s acquisition of San Francisco-based URS Corp. last year for approximately $4 billion. The two firms had been listed separately on previous lists but are now listed as one company.
AECOM also reported the largest increase in OC employees—up 59% during the period from 360 to 574. The firm’s local engineering team operates out of its office in Orange and is the largest on the list this year.
• No. 31, Tustin-based Hall & Foreman Inc., now a division of Portland, Ore.-based David Evans & Associates Inc., reported the largest increase in companywide billings with a 1,310% increase over last year.
The company’s billings jumped from $9.9 million to $140 million.
The dramatic increase in companywide billings resulted from Hall & Foreman’s merger with David Evans last year. The firm still operates out of Tustin, where it employs about 34.
“The merger [provided] us with the opportunity to more than double our staff in Southern California,” David Evans Chief Executive Al Barkouli said in a news release.
“Hall & Foreman’s strong presence in the greater Los Angeles area complement[s] our existing offices in Los Angeles, Ontario, San Diego, and Santa Barbara.”
• Two firms made notable jumps on the list—Irvine-based Hunsaker & Associates and Pasadena-based Jacobs Engineering Group.
Hunsaker moved from No. 16 to No. 8 this year, reporting $29 million in local billings, up 45% over the previous year. The firm has other offices in Southern California and in Arizona but is headquartered in Irvine.
“We are fortunate to have a great staff here at Hunsaker that allows us the ability to maintain a very significant amount of repeat business from our clients,” said President Doug Staley.
He said the firm is working on projects as far south as Oceanside, north to Los Angeles and to the desert areas to the east, as well as projects in Nevada and Hawaii.
• Pasadena-based Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. made the biggest jump this year, rising from No. 26 to No. 17. It reported $16.2 million in local billings, a nearly 100% increase from last year’s $8.1 million. Companywide revenues were nearly $13 billion.
Ninety percent of the firm’s work is business from repeat clients, according to its website.
It has a large office in Irvine, where 261 of its 66,000 employees work. Jacobs has a market cap of $5.8 billion.
