Bouygues Bâtiment International acquired Warings in 2007, followed in 2011 with the purchase of a 51% of the Leadbitter group, incorporating Denne. In 2012, Bouygues acquired Thomas Vale as well as the remaining 49% of Leadbitter.
The new structure has also been developed to recognise that Bouygues UK is now the parent company of these UK entities, with a combined turnover of £750m and 1700 employees across 130 sites.
Under the leadership of executive chairman Madani Sow, Bouygues UK will operate under four management units:
- Construction
- Housing
- Thomas Vale
- Bouygues Development.
Construction and Housing incorporate the activities of Warings, Leadbitter and Denne with those that already in Bouygues UK. These businesses will continue to trade as their legal registered entities.
Construction – The Construction Management Unit is led by Lionel Christolomme as managing director. He has been with the group since 1991 and has been a Bouygues UK executive board member since 2007.
This unit is divided into four regions:
- London & South East – based at Bouygues UK’s headquarters in Waterloo, London, and headed by regional managing director Arnaud Bekaert. This team is also responsible for delivering major projects across the UK.
- Western – in addition to heading up the construction activities of the business from offices in Bristol, Plymouth, Swansea and Cardiff, regional md Rob Bradley and his team take responsibility for housing projects in this region.
- Central South – headed up by regional director Dave Cook in the Portsmouth office, the Central South team covers Hampshire to southwest London.
- Central North – from the Abingdon office, regional director Cliff Thomas’ team covers Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, north London and west London.
The Housing Management Unit is led by Paul Abson as managing director. He was previously deputy CEO of Leadbitter. Operating across central England, the southeast and London, the Housing Management Unit’s market focus is residential and mixed tenure developments, care and extra care facilities and student accommodation.
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Under the new structure, Thomas Vale will operate as a stand-alone unit within Bouygues UK, under managing director Tony Hyde, covering the East and West Midlands.
Bouygues Development will continue to be headed by Nicolas Guérin as managing director.
Explaining his strategy, Madani Sow said: “Following the completion of the acquisitions and particularly those that were undertaken in 2012, we have spent the last 12 months integrating our businesses. This integration is going well and I now feel the time is right to announce a new structure.
“When defining our structure and recognising that the businesses need to continue to trade under their legal entities, I wanted to ensure that we provided clarity to the market. We have done this by integrating the skills and expertise of the businesses we have across the UK. Equally important is that we raise the profile of Bouygues UK across the country and over the coming months you will see we are doing this by creating stronger visual links to the Bouygues UK brand and name throughout our business.
“In addition, as a national business, I wanted to have a clearly defined regional network of operations to fully understand the local areas in which we operate, delivering the needs of our customers in a responsible way and to enhance the quality of the built environment for the communities in which we work.”
The UK leadership team of Bouygues UK is:
- Madani Sow, executive chairman
- Paul Abson, managing director, housing,
- Lionel Christolomme, managing director, construction
- Nicolas Guérin, managing director, Bouygues Development
- Tony Hyde, managing director, Thomas Vale
- Carole Ditty, legal director
- Gerald Farque, technical director
- Philippe Jouy, strategy and finance director
- Martin Schulz, human resources director.
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