Turnover and pre-tax profit have risen sharply at engineering consultant Oscar Faber.

Turnover rose 15% to £36m in the year to 31 May 1999. Pre-tax profits rose 30% to £2.6m over the same period.

The results would have been better but the engineer spent £505 000 on computer equipment and millennium bug compliance measures and a further £760 000 was spent on property and furniture.

Oscar Faber has high hopes for projects in Singapore next year. The company has won local quality assurance certification, which allows it to carry out work for the Singapore government.

Chief executive Ken Dalton said the company had closed its Moscow office this year, having completed all outstanding projects.

He added that Oscar Faber would only be opening new offices on a project-specific basis.

In the UK, Oscar Faber wants to expand its offices in Glasgow and Birmingham. The company is also looking at boosting work won in rail, infrastructure and facilities consultancy.

Oscar Faber is one of Britain's biggest engineers, employing 238 chartered staff – 58 more than it did in 1998. It employs 819 staff worldwide – up 74 from 1998. It has 14 offices in the UK and two abroad.

This year the company worked on the J Sainsbury eco-store near the Millennium Dome in south-east London and the Lighthouse, a design museum in Glasgow that is the flagship for Glasgow 1999 Year of Design and Architecture.