KBR’s contribution to UK economy is close to £1 billion

IT professional services firm KBR makes an economic contribution to the UK close to £1 billion, according to a research report delivered by Oxford Economics. The researchers also estimates the company supported 12,800 jobs.

Headquartered in Texas, global consulting firm KBR delivers work in the defence, government, space, nuclear and wider energy and security sectors to clients around the world. That includes the UK – the world’s second largest national consulting market – where the firm has been building a growing presence.

Spanning 18 office locations, KBR also boasts additional project sites across the country. As a result, new research suggests that as well as its 4,000 direct employees, the firm supports more than 12,800 jobs across the UK economy through its supply chain and wage-induced spending.

The study carried out by Oxford Economics, which was commissioned by KBR for the research – found that this constituted an estimated £913 million contribution to UK GDP in 2023. In addition, the 12,800 jobs across the country yielded £366 million in tax revenues.

Unsurprisingly, KBR provided a particular GDP boost to its own sector – with a £53 billion impact on professional services. At a difficult moment for the UK professional services market – with many consultants seeing a revenue retraction over the last year – professional services accounted for 39% of the firm’s spending.

However, the firm also boosted the administrative services and public administration sectors by more than £30 billion each. This accounted for ‘/an even larger portion of the total spend by KBR and its JVs.

KBR is also playing a key role in the UK’s sustainability and security ambitions, according to the Oxford Economics researchers. Taking stock of the firm’s achievements of recent times, they noted that KBR is pursuing the development of new energy technologies in line with the country’s net zero ambitions.

In particular, alongside 11 other organisations, KBR-owned Frazer-Nash Consultancy is also providing services to the UK Government to support its goal of powering the UK with entirely clean electricity by 2035 and have net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

At the same time, KBR continues to play a key role in the UK Nuclear Mission, via its work at Sellafield. One of the world’s largest nuclear decommissioning sites, of the 1,500 people working there, 350 are direct KBR employees – emphasising the importance of the work its UK staff do, as the site processes nuclear waste and shut down operations.