AUSTRIA – Mercer HR Consulting, the Vienna based subsidiary of international consultancy group William M Mercer, has opened an office in Innsbruck in conjunction with its sister company Marsh Austria.

Mercer HR Consulting is the result of the acquisition of Constantia Neuberger Bednar and Partner by William M. Mercer during the summer, as reported by IPE Newsline on September 9.

The Vienna office has practically doubled in size since then from 8 to15 or so employees.

The new office will have an initial staff level of two, with a view to taking on at least two more within two years. It will serve both institutional and retail clients.

It will serve the Tyrol, Salzburg and Vorarlberg areas and its operations will focus on brokerage activities to begin with before incorporating other consultancy and benefits advice at a later stage. Actuarial advice for the aforementioned regions will continue to be taken care of out of Mercer’s Vienna office.

There are no further plans for any geographic expansion, at least not until 2003-2004, but there is a possibility that the company will expand its activities to include investment consultancy in the near future.

Says Kurt Bednar, country head for Mercer in Austria: “We decided to set up a permanent presence in the Tyrol, Salzburg and Vorarlberg areas because these have particularly strong regional economies, but we don’t have plans to open any other offices at this time. We do, however, anticipate moving into investment consultancy and as such will be looking to take on an investment consultant in our Vienna office next year.”

Topics