Aussie aspirants

It takes a fair deal of chutzpah for a foreign firm to think it can break into a construction market as mature as the UK's and get away with it. Most start cautiously by forming joint ventures or buying local firms and trialling their strength on smallish projects.

Not so with Australian outfit Multiplex. With typical Aussie confidence it is happily going it alone and it is not messing about with small-fry contracts either - you can't get a much larger or more high-profile project than building the country's national football stadium.

The Wembley Stadium contract has certainly put Multiplex on the UK map and fast, though its name wasn't exactly unknown in this country following its highly successful construction of the Sydney Olympic Stadium.

But despite the obvious prestige of the Wembley contract which is being tipped to get the go-ahead in the autumn Multiplex Constructions (UK) director Pat Cannon says: "We don't want to be seen as just a stadium contractor. We do commercial and residential projects and we are a developer too. We also want to get into PFI, but we need to build up more of a critical mass before we do that."

Multiplex now has more than 100 staff in the UK and it has secured a number of commercial and residential schemes in the London area. It is pitching for the massive £520m White City development in west London for developer Chelsfield and the £150m Grand Union Building in Paddington, London, also for Chelsfield.

Cannon says the firm is starting to look for opportunities beyond London, but it hasn't committed to anything yet.

In the meantime it is building a 33-storey development at West India Quay in London's Docklands, which will house a 400-bedroom Marriott International hotel, 58 serviced apartments and 158 apartments for sale. It is also lined up for Sentinel Point, a 9,000m2 commercial project at Vauxhall Cross in London - part of a larger scheme for developer St George.

However, it's a project in London's Knightsbridge that should put paid to the view that Multiplex is just a stadium contractor. The £130m scheme is one of the area's largest and most luxurious residential developments in decades. Along with Wembley, it is the kind of project that should, as Cannon puts it, "show the market we are here".

The client is 199 Knightsbridge Development, a company set up specifically for the project by a number of Hong Kong-based investors. The 60,000m2 development, known as The Knightsbridge, will provide 205 apartments ranging in price from £2m to about £15m, along with two levels of underground parking. The apartments will feature a standard of services normally reserved for six-star hotels.



So how did Multiplex manage to steal this scheme from under the noses of its UK rivals? Paul Baynham of 199 Knightsbridge Development offers a few clues.

"We wanted to go in with a contractor we could click with. We wanted an openness in discussions and the same approach to problem solving. We were keen to work with a company that had an international outlook and Multiplex has a lot of people who have worked all over the world, which gives it a broader view. We were also looking for a very good relationship at the highest level of both organisations," he says.

Multiplex chief executive, John Roberts, was happy to oblige by leading the negotiations and he and his senior team meet the client every two months to deal with any problems at that level.

Cannon says: "The lines of communication are short. We have a flat management structure and we can make quick decisions and are very proactive."

Baynham says his firm liked that attitude and has extended this spirit of co-operation to the consultants as well - architect Squire & Partners structures and services engineer WSP, and cost consultant Gardiner & Theobald.

"We are a very in-your-face client. We have people on site and at all the meetings and we are jointly tendering the works packages with Multiplex. Being there means we can make much quicker decisions," says Baynham

The client has insisted on the main contractor, consultants and major trade contractors all co-locating in one office on site. And while speed and price are important, the real challenge of the job will be delivering the required high quality.

Both Baynham and Cannon say that the key to success is ensuring the design and construction methodology is right, along with mastering the complex sequencing of the works packages. The key to meeting the quality challenge, they argue, is selecting the right trade contractors.

"We quizzed their methodology and programming to death," says Baynham with a grin. "We want trade contractors who are not afraid to speak their mind and table their issues, but who won't let it detract them from getting on with the job. They have to trust us."

Cannon says that when 75% of the packages are out, Multiplex will commit to a guaranteed maximum price. This should occur in March or April next year.

As part of its commitment to finding the right trade contractors, Multiplex meets with the managing directors before tender. "They meet our managing director. We try to get them in at the highest level to ensure their estimating teams are reactive," says Cannon.

Baynham adds: "You learn something more about an organisation by meeting the managing director rather than the team pitching for the job. Managing directors tend to be much franker about their worries and the risks."

So far, Baynham says he is very satisfied with the performance of the design team, main contractor and trade contractors. He is full of praise for Brown & Mason's handling of the complex demolition work and for Cementation Foundations Skanska, which undertook the secant piling and the foundation piling. About 50 major packages will be let by the time the development is completed in January 2005.

By that time, Multiplex should be firmly established as a name on the UK construction map.