As the credit crunch bites across local government, business services group, Mouchel, has reported a 20% rise in pre-tax profits for the year to 31 July 2008.

Mouchel group chief executive, Richard Cuthbert, said he believed councils were ‘reaching a tipping-point on shared services'.

With the current financial climate, he claimed there would be a rapid move to efficiency and joint working. He said his firm had been ‘positioning itself' for an economic downturn for the past few years.

While he was not complacent about the effects the global financial crisis might have on Mouchel, he said ‘the work we do is more connected to essential services than to capital expenditure', so the work would have to continue.

He added: ‘The UK public sector is a better place to be than anywhere in the current economic climate.' About 41% of revenue came from Mouchel's government services arm.

In this period, the firm extended its 10-year strategic partnership with Lincolnshire CC. The company was also one of two short-listed  bidders for a Southwark BSF project.

Mouchel benefited from the acquisition of  HBS and Hedra, in addition to three firms in the previous year, Traffic Support, Ewan Group and Hornagold & Hills.

Mouchel continues to have a strong forward order book and bidding pipeline of £2.1bn and £2.2bn, respectively.

Results for the year ending 31 July: