Unite deal pays off at Warings

Warings has smashed through the £100m turnover barrier; and the Portsmouth-based design and build construction group is on target for £130m by the end of 2005/06.
"We've been successful in the past year," said chief executive Len Salter. "The £40m Mercedes-Benz project at Brooklands will be the biggest we've ever done. It's a design and build contract.
"Were we nervous about taking that size of job on? Not really, we were ready for something that large. When the client adjudged us to have the right capability, we at Warings felt honoured."
Warings' latest financial results (12 months to 30 April) show a pre-tax profit of £2m (£1.3m) on a turnover of £107m (£95m). Salter anticipates a turn-over of about £110m this financial year, rising to more than £130m in the following 12 months.
A sizeable chunk of Warings' turnover comes from its partnership with Unite. After completing a 726-bedroom student accommodation building in Portsmouth worth £17m, Unite awarded Warings two further projects in Southampton and Bournemouth. The first of these has already been handed over.
"They are all design and build and so far we've done them to time and to budget," Salter said. "Being one of Unite's partners in the South means we are in a process of continuous improvement. It's a challenge, but we can rise to it. We got the chance to tackle the Southampton project because the original contractor it was offered to couldn't face the timescale, so we're proud of that."
Warings is in negotiations with Unite for a follow-up project in Southampton. "Continuous improvement savings come from driving out inefficiencies. You get better at it by using the same people in the supply chain, plus you come up with clever ideas. For example, we now have a door frame that can be fitted in seven minutes."
Warings has no links with Jarvis. "It was another client in the student accommodation sector," Salter said. "By a happy coincidence we were not working for Jarvis."
Warings tackles projects in the £15m to £20m band. "That's a very nice size," Salter said. The group has a strike rate of better than one in three. "We are targeted. Our estimating department is too precious to be bidding speculatively for work," he added.