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Two Years On: Building More Than an Office in Saudi Arabia
by Richard Palmer – KSA General Manager and Partner at WKC Group
Why Saudi Arabia?
WKC officially established its Saudi Arabian office in early 2024 but our story in the Kingdom began much earlier. We have been supporting projects across Saudi Arabia since WKC was founded in 2009, with one of our earliest flagship projects involving the environmental permitting of a major refinery in Jubail Industrial City.
During that time, Saudi Arabia itself has undergone remarkable change. As environmental standards have evolved and sustainability has become increasingly embedded within the Kingdom’s ambitious development programme, establishing a permanent local presence, just a short distance from WKC’s first major consultancy project in Jubail, became an inevitable next step for us.
WKC KSA office is located in Al Khobar, Eastern Province
While we would continue to draw on expertise from across the WKC Group, we wanted to build a genuine local delivery model; one that responds to the expectations of our clients and the regulators.
From the outset, this was never intended to be a “shop window”. It was a long-term investment in being able to build new, locally based provider of high-quality environmental consultancy services.
Building a Business from the Ground Up?
Building a consultancy business is about much more than securing an office and completing the necessary registrations. And while we’ve done both of those things, including obtaining an impressive portfolio of regulator and client registrations, it’s also about bringing together the right mix of people, understanding the local business environment, establishing scalable systems, and earning the confidence of clients.
Establishing a foreign-owned consultancy in Saudi Arabia required patience and adaptability, with more than a few lessons learned along the way.
Fortunately, our previous experience across the GCC gave us a solid foundation in terms of what to expect, which I think allowed us to navigate the sometimes complex and frustrating process relatively quickly.
As a management-owned business, we’ve always believed in growing sustainably. That meant building a capable team from day one, combining talented local recruits with experienced colleagues transferring from other WKC offices. We treated every new project as another opportunity to demonstrate our capabilities and earn the trust that can only come through consistently delivering quality work.
Local talent; from left, Rawan, Turki, Dalya, and Aziz
Our Trust Network
Perhaps the greatest measure of success over the last two years hasn’t been the number of projects we’ve completed, but the important relationships we’ve added to what we in WKC call our ‘trust network’.
We’re now seeing clients return to us with new opportunities, while many enquiries arrive through recommendations from organisations we’ve previously worked with. For any consultancy there is no stronger endorsement than a client willing to recommend your services to others.
Today our team supports projects of all sizes, from local developments to large, multi-disciplinary studies spanning multiple regions and sectors across the Kingdom. Our clients range from major power, mining, industry and PIF organisations to leading, international engineering consultancies such as Jacobs, Parsons, ILF and SGC.
We have successfully permitted projects spanning urban regeneration and regional scale masterplanning, capacity building within the oil and gas sector, supporting energy diversification through wind and solar developments, nationwide rail expansion programmes, AI infrastructure and biodiversity conservation initiatives.
WKC have supported numerous urban development Projects in KSA, including the Central Riyadh Masterplan
Investing in People
Our Saudi colleagues have brought important insight and enthusiasm, helping us better understand the local market while strengthening relationships with clients and other stakeholders. Equally, colleagues from across the wider WKC Group have shared their own technical experience and expertise, creating a collaborative way of working that benefits every project we work on.
Whether drawing on specialist expertise from our neighbouring UAE offices or colleagues further afield in South Africa, Sweden, the UK or the Philippines, our clients benefit from the combined knowledge of the wider WKC Group, while still enjoying the responsiveness and understanding that comes from having a dedicated local team.
Turki from KSA (left) supporting a marine survey with colleagues from the UAE
Regardless of project size or sector, we continue to be guided by the same universal principles that have shaped WKC since the beginning: technical robustness, collaboration and entrepreneurship.
Looking Ahead
As Saudi Arabia continues its remarkable transformation, we see increasing demand for environmental and sustainability expertise across a wide range of sectors. Beyond our traditional environmental consultancy services, we’re investing in areas such as ESG and EMS.
The focus, however, remains the same as it was two years ago: sustainable growth rather than rapid expansion. We believe the strongest businesses are built on quality, trusted relationships and consistently delivering work that clients value.
Looking back, it’s remarkable how much has been achieved in just two years. There have certainly been challenges along the way, but they’ve made the journey even more rewarding. More importantly, they’ve reinforced our belief that establishing a permanent presence in Saudi Arabia was absolutely the right decision.
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