National contractors continue to take the bulk of major orders in Britain according to Glenigan’s latest research.
The Glenigan Regional League Tables for the top 10 contractors in each of the 12 economic regions of the United Kingdom show major national contractors are top of all 11 regions in Britain.
The research, which excludes frameworks although individual projects awarded as part of these agreements are included, shows market share being gobbled up by bigger contractors. Just eight different contractors top the 11 British regions.
Morgan Sindall topped the national table in the 12 months to July 2017 and leads the way in the East of England and the West Midlands.
Sir Robert McAlpine is second in the national table and also top in London with orders totalling £1.2 billion and also the North East, while Interserve leads with the pack in Yorkshire and Wales.
Kier and Balfour Beatty – ranked third and eighth in the national tables – are top in the South West and the South East respectively, while Royal BAM.
Laing O’Rourke is top Scotland and the North West and the only one of the contractors topping the 11 British tables not amongst the 25 members of the major contractors’ association, Build UK.
The research covers awards of contracts valued at £250,000 or more so favours larger players, but illustrates the increasing domination of the major players.
In the year to July 2016, Balfour and Carillion topped two tables each. The leaders of the other tables were also mostly major players and members of Build UK with the exception of Laing O’Rourke – top in Yorkshire – and Robertson, which was in pole position in Scotland.
The latest tables do show some regional or specialist contractors holding onto market share in the face of the onslaught from the major players.
Midas has succeeded in rising to second in the South West after growing its order book in the region to £230.6 million (2016: £184.0 million), while Esh has grown its orders in the North East to £81.4 million (2016: £60.6 million) and risen to fourth place.
The East Midlands is a hub for warehouse development and specialist Winvic remains second in this region despite orders slipping back to £288.1 million (2016: £359.8 million).
East Anglian outfit RG Carter has grown its order book to £199.7 million over the past year (2016: £170.6 million) the East of England but still slipped from fourth to fifth place in the regional top 10. Scunthorpe-based Clugston and GMI from Leeds have edged into the Yorkshire top-10 and Lindum features in the East Midlands. Alun Griffiths from Abergavenny is just holding on to a place in the Welsh top 10, which has been otherwise colonised by UK-wide players, and provincial contractors are a rare sight in regional top 10s.
The Northern Irish market has long been anathema to many British outfits but even in Ulster the leading contractor, Farrans – ranked 34th in the latest UK-wide tables – is a subsidiary of Irish-based multi-national construction materials conglomerate CRH, as the dominance of major corporations extends across the Irish Sea.
