BEEAs Winners': Ricardo

The story behind Ricardo, winner of Design Consultancy of the Year.

Category Sponsor: MAG

Headline Sponsor: Distrupol

Judges' Comment: "Across the board Ricardo has proved itself, time and again, as a trusted supporter of British companies delivering innovative solutions effectively and efficiently."

Across all projects, and in every assignment, Ricardo is committed to the ethos of Sir Harry Ricardo, the founder of the company – one of the most innovative mechanical engineers of his time – who, in 1915, set out on a mission to maximise efficiency and eliminate waste.

With this goal in mind, constant evolution has been required to ensure Ricardo maintains competitive advantage in an ever-changing market.

Ricardo is a long-established, global engineering, environmental and strategic consultancy, offering a unique combination of capabilities that no other company can deliver.

The consulting activities Ricardo support cover all aspects of engineering from complete vehicles and all vehicle sub-systems including engines, transmissions, chassis, hybrid and electric systems and all vehicle attribute areas.

Niche volume manufacturing for high-precision applications is the cornerstone of the Ricardo product offer, working with clients from a variety of market sectors to deliver high quality, performance critical products at scale and in compliance with third party and government regulations.

To leverage industry experience and solve complex problems on behalf of global clients, Ricardo pioneers the combination of capability in technical consulting with the new product introduction skills required to transition from prototype to scalable, robust manufacture and assembly of complex products.

These skills in niche volume manufacturing are highly valuable in the current economic climate. Long-established businesses are seeing changes to their business models and production requirements and many well-funded and technologically-advanced start-ups are disrupting the traditional and long-established industries with new products and services that will be scaled at a rate never seen before.

Ricardo is engaged with companies of all sizes to support the development of novel ideas into products ready for manufacture at increasing scales. Having a diverse customer base illustrates the growth and development markets served by Ricardo recent years. The company has a long history of supplying driveline products to the high-performance vehicle and motorsport industries, the application of these skills as consultants has delivered projects in a diverse range of market sectors including medical, power generation, defence and finance as well bringing projects in areas away from traditional internal combustion powertrains, moving towards electrification and hydrogen fuel cells.