The consulting practice Ward Ashcroft was founded in Liverpool in 1888,[1] predominantly as a water and public health business.
By the mid-1960s it had diversified into highways and structural engineering and from the 1970s it had spread its wings internationally, working in Africa and Portugal and later Eastern Europe.
The company advised on outsourcing following the rapid expansion of public sector term contracts in the 1980s.
From the mid-1990s Parkman, as it was now known, moved into public sector property and housing, starting with the London Borough of Bexley, and in 1996 it won a Queens Award for Export Achievement.
In 2000, the company, previously management and staff-owned, underwent a management buy-out and by 2001 a significant shift took place in the company's turnover as it moved towards public sector outsourcing commissions.