amec's year at the top

Amec has carried off the CJ40 League trophy for the first time. The trophy is awarded by Contract Journal annually for outstanding success in gaining new UK contracts over œ500,000.

A heady year culminated in Amec gaining a grand total of œ847 million worth of new qualifying contracts in 1994.

The group topped the monthly CJ40 tables five times in 1994. Its biggest successes included a share in a œ125 million London sewerage incinerator, a series of important road schemes and notable contracts from the gas and chemical industries.

The group has changed places with John Laing, 1993's winner for the third time and 1994's number two at œ726 million.

Amec's prowess has been in the industrial sector but Laing's best results have been achieved in commercial work.

About half of the top 40 companies which constitute 1994's annual table improved their position over the previous year.

Fastest movers included Hall & Tawse (which improved its competitive position from 20th to 13th during the year), Wiltshier (from 26th to 20th), and Morrison (from 38th to 32nd). Newcomers included Simons (37th), GA Group (39th) and Simons (40th). Out went Higgins and Ballast Nedam.

Other losers included Willmott Dixon (down from 19th to 26th) and Team (from 21st to 27th).

The threshold to secure a position in the 1994 final table was œ53 million. That compares with œ65 million in 1993. The top 40 contractors won œ10,271 million worth of qualifying new work in 1994 compared with œ9,696 million won by a slightly different list of contractors in 1993.

Less than a dozen contractors regularly score more than œ400 million a year in the CJ40 League. Amec more than doubled that figure in 1994 but a glance at the longer-term three-year averages (see top right) provokes more sobering thoughts.

Amec's 1994 success also propelled it into first place in the longer-term chart with a œ688 million annual average over the latest three years. Comparison with similar charts for earlier three-year periods would reveal the consistency of some of the big players: Laing, Trafalgar House and John Mowlem are usually near the top.

Another one to watch is Hall & Tawse which has jumped from nowhere to 15th place in the three-year averages.

Those rivals Higgs & Hill and Y J Lovell are often neck-and-neck in the CJ40 tables. Higgs & Hill has slipped just one place to 16th in the three-year averages although Lovell has slipped out of sight from last time's 17th.

The CJ40 League is compiled from a consistent list of building and civil engineering firms regularly obtaining new UK contracts over the œ500,000 threshold.

Any other contractors with annual new order intakes of at least œ30 million and who believe they have a sporting chance of appearing in the annual CJ40 table, or at least of appearing frequently in monthly tables, are invited to write to the CJ40 editor for a confidential questionnaire.

A more detailed report of CJ40's annual report for 1994, with further tables and charts, can be made available to readers at cost.

Write or fax for details to: CJ40 Editor, Contract Journal, Quadrant House, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS; fax (0181) 307 7696.

n Compiled by Ken Smith