Booting up together

Ballast Wiltshier this week renewed its business partnership with Boots the Chemist for a further two years.

The two sides formed an alliance in February 1994. Under the arrangement, Ballast Wiltshier has designed and built 59 Boots stores across the country.

Alex Gaskill, managing director at Ballast Wiltshier, said: "We have invested considerable resources in developing our alliance service and are fully committed to this form of procurement."

The concept of partnerships is growing within the construction industry.

Amec operates several business alliances, including with BAA, BP and Mobil. It has just signed a partnership agreement with Rugby cement to develop a new plant.

A spokesman for Amec said: "Business partnerships are up and coming and definitely the way of the future for the construction industry particularly with clients who have a large spend. They remove the adversarial barriers, pool resources and mean both sides can work together to achieve considerable cost savings."