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Construction Market Data

22 December 2024

Related Information

Top 100 Construction Companies 2014

In our 2014 look at who’s up & who’s down among UK construction contractors, we find that Dawn us has the best profit margin, Geoffrey Osborne is the highest climber but Thomas Armstrong Group is financially the healthiest. Kier and Galliford Try, however, may need to take action.

We invited Nick Hood, head of external affairs with Company Watch, to analyse the figures to see who have been the winners over the past 12 months, who has been less fortunate, and how the UK’s leading contractors are performing.

A year ago, construction industry pundits were cautiously celebrating the first tentative signs of recovery after the long downturn provoked by the global financial crisis. Since then all the news has been positive in terms of growth in activity levels, most notably for those companies servicing the rip-roaring success of the British housing market.

Despite this, our survey of the financial results of the Top 100 contractors repeats the stark message we delivered last year; revenues are static, profit margins are pathetically small. Prospects remain uncertain because of ongoing downward pressure on contract pricing from savage competition and because of the twin evils of skill shortages and rapidly rising input costs.

For full analysis of 2014 Top 100, please click here.

Rank by turnover Rank by profit Company 2013 Rank by turnover 2013 Rank by profit Latest turnover (£m) 2013 turnover (£m) Latest pre-tax profit (£m) 2013 Pre-tax profit (£m) Latest margin (%) Previous margin (%)
1 8 Balfour Beatty 1 4 10,118 9,966 32 75 0.3 0.8
2 1 Carillion 2 2 4,081 4,403 110.6 164.8 2.7 3.7
3 6 Kier Group (Inc. May Gurney) 3 3 2,669 2,765 47.2 82.3 1.8 3
4 4 Interserve 4 1 2,582 2,370 68.1 179.8 2.6 7.6
5 19 Morgan Sindall 7 10 2,095 2,047 13.9 34.2 0.7 1.7
6 2 Amey UK/Enterprise 5 6 1,762 2,271 78.7 45.4 4.5 2
7 15 Laing O'Rourke 8 12 1,640 1,622 21.5 27.4 1.3 1.7
8 14 BAM Construction/Nuttall 7 10 1,596 1,647 21.6 32 1.4 1.9
9 3 Galliford Try 9 5 1,467 1,504 74.1 63.1 5.1 4.2
10 5 Keller 10 7 1,438 1,318 52 43.5 3.6 3.3
11 52 ISG 11 56 1,284 1,281 2.5 3 0.2 0.2
12 32 Vinci UK 13 25 1,255 1,107 7.1 15.3 0.6 1.4
13 7 Skanska 14 8 1,121 1,092 44.2 43.4 3.9 4
14 9 Mace 17 18 1,108 951 28.3 22.8 2.6 2.4
15 34 Willmott Dixon 16 30 1,023 1,034 6.9 8.9 0.7 0.9
16 21 Costain 18 17 960 935 12.9 24.7 1.3 2.6
17 97 Bouygues 15 15 912 1,048 -10.2 25.5 -1.1 2.4
18 11 Wates 12 14 931 1,194 22.3 25.7 2.4 2.2
19 38 Sir Robert McAlpine 19 22 898 769 5.9 20.5 0.7 2.7
20 100 Lakeside 1 (Keepmoat) 22 99 886 676 -21.4 -472.6 -2.4 -69.9
21 13 Mears 21 21 866 680 21.7 20.8 2.5 3.1
22 28 Miller 26 40 817 620 10.4 6.6 1.3 1.1
23 20 Shepard 24 11 748 672 13 27.6 1.7 4.1
24 24 VolkerWessels UK 20 27 697 691 11.5 11.7 1.7 1.7
25 10 Bowmer & Kirkland 23 20 660 675 23.1 21.5 3.5 3.2
26 12 J Murphy 29 13 656 530 21.9 26.4 3.3 5
27 22 Imtech 25 19 645 648 12.5 22.3 1.9 3.4
28 93 Morrison Utility Services 27 88 550 548 -5.5 -2.2 -1 -0.4
29 16 SSE Contracting 31 16 490 458 20.8 25 4.2 5.5
30 95 Lend Lease 28 23 449 545 -8.6 20.4 -1.9 3.7
31 96 NG Bailey 30 37 422 459 -10.1 7.2 -2.4 1.6
32 23 Mclaren 32 42 378 376 11.7 6.1 3.1 1.6
33 27 Renew Holdings 35 34 350 337 10.7 8.4 3.1 2.5
34 43 Geoffrey Osborne 42 89 327 256 5.2 -2.6 1.6 -1
35 35 John Graham 40 49 319 264 6.8 4.7 2.1 1.8
36 46 Seddon 37 44 307 281 4.5 5.4 1.5 1.9
37 30 Northstone NI 36 32 299 286 8 8.6 2.7 3
38 25 Brookfield Multiplex 48 35 295 222 10.9 8.3 3.7 3.7
39 59 Sisk 33 93 294 374 1.4 -4.5 0.5 -1
40 70 Byrne Group 39 54 280 267 0.6 3.8 0.2 1.4
41 98 Emcor 34 39 274 340 -13.1 6.7 -4.8 2
42 74 Clancy 44 58 239 251 0.6 2.9 0.3 1.2
43 26 Integral UK 47 29 239 240 10.7 9.1 4.5 3.8
44 41 RG Carter 47 29 239 249 5.4 5.1 2.3 2.1
45 65 Ardmore 46 56 236 241 0.9 3.1 0.4 1.3
46 89 Robertson Group 38 87 231 269 -3.9 -1 -1.7 -0.4
47 90 Severfield 43 98 231 255 -4.1 -23.1 -1.8 -9.1
48 56 T Clarke 58 67 217 194 1.7 1.2 0.8 0.6
49 62 Longcross 53 68 216 206 1.1 0.9 0.5 0.4
50 36 Malcolm Group 56 47 212 197 6.5 4.9 3.1 2.5
51 40 Eric Wright Group 59 51 201 183 5.6 4.5 2.8 2.5
52 39  Lorne Stewart 50 38 200 212 5.7 7.1 2.9 3.4
53 82 City Building (Glasgow) 62 79 195 179 -1.2 0.3 -0.6 0.2
54 91 SGN Contracting 61 95 194 181 -4.2 -5.8 -2.2 -3.2
55 33 Lakehouse Contracts 69 48 191 154 7.1 4.8 3.7 3.1
56 54 Carey Group 55 50 188 198 2.1 4.7 1.1 2.4
57 99 Spie Matthew Hall 41 97 183 264 -17.4 -23 -9.5 -8.7
58 42 Forth Holdings 66 36 181 163 5.4 7.5 3 4.6
59 61 Midas 51 72 181 212 1.2 0.7 0.7 0.3
60 84 William Hare 63 96 179 177 -1.8 -6.8 -1 -3.8
61 53 Higgins 54 60 179 203 2.3 2.4 1.3 1.2
62 83 Buckingham 60 65 178 182 -1.7 1.5 -1 0.8
63 17 Dawnus 74 26 178 137 17.3 12.3 9.7 9
64 94 North Midland Construction 65 71 178 169 -6 0.7 -3.4 0.4
65 45 McNicholas Construction 67 80 177 155 4.7 0.3 2.7 0.2
66 51 Lagan 77 70 174 128 2.8 0.9 1.6 0.7
67 72 ESH Holdings 64 77 174 170 0.6 0.4 0.3 0.2
68 57 RGCM 49 61 166 215 1.6 2.4 1 1.1
69 58 Barr 52 91 164 211 1.5 -3.1 0.9 -1.5
70 18 Bechtel 73 24 162 144 14.8 19.8 9.1 13.8
71 49 McLaughlin & Harvey 71 53 158 151 3.2 4.2 2 2.8
72 81 GB Building Solutions 76 82 156 130 -0.3 0.2 -0.2 0.2
73 63 GSH Group 57 90 146 196 1.1 -3 0.8 -1.5
74 29 Mulalley 75 28 135 134 8.5 9.1 6.3 6.8
75 88 Brett Group 72 94 134 151 -3.6 -4.8 -2.7 -3.2
76 87 Mabey 78 33 130 128 -2.8 8.6 -2.2 6.7
77 85 Pyper Construction     128 0 -2 0 -1.6  
78 69 Bullock Construction 70 66 127 152 0.7 1.3 0.6 0.9
79 50 Winvic Group 68 52 112 154 3.1 4.2 2.8 2.7
80 31 Thomas Armstrong 80 41 110 116 7.5 6.5 6.8 5.6
81 79 GF Tomlinson 82 92 107 99 0.2 -3.6 0.2 -3.6
82 86 Headcrown 79 83 102 120 -2.5 0.1 -2.5 0.1
83 92 Tolent 81 86 97 110 -4.6 -0.2 -4.7 -0.2
84 60 MV Kelly Limited 84 73 94 88 1.2 0.7 1.3 0.8
85 55 Lindum 88 59 94 83 1.9 2.5 2 3
86 80 City Building (Contracts) 90 85 90 75 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
87 47 Pyeroy Group 91 57 89 74 4.4 2.9 4.9 3.9
88 37 RJ McLeod 87 45 84 83 6.5 5.1 7.7 6.1
89 44 Masterson 85 43 84 87 4.8 6 5.7 6.9
90 66 Simpson (York) 83 62 74 93 0.9 2.2 1.2 2.4
91 68 Trant Holdings 86 64 72 84 0.8 1.7 1.1 2
92 45 Stepnell 89 31 67 82 3.3 8.8 4.9 10.7
93 64 Barnes Group 94 74 63 64 0.9 0.6 1.4 0.9
94 67 John Turner Holdings 96 75 62 43 0.9 0.5 1.5 1.2
95 78 Speller Metcalfe 92 84 56 72 0.2 0.1 0.4 0.1
96 75 Base Build 93 76 56 65 0.5 0.5 0.9 0.8
97 73 Feltham Group 95 63 51 45 0.6 1.8 1.2 4
98 76 Ashe Group 97 81 47 4.3 0.3 0.3 0.6 0.7
99 71 Ogilvie Construction 98 69 47 40 0.6 0.9 1.3 2.3
100 77 Brymor 99 78 43 36 0.3 0.3 0.7 0.8
Totals         58,447 58,027 871.6 789.2 1.354 1.21010101


Key:
up Up from 2013
up Down from 2013
up No change from 2013