CJ50 Market data: New year win for Sir Robert

PDF of market data January 2006

The first CJ50 of 2006 boasted 17 new entrants, including first-placed Sir Robert McAlpine, which was comfortably ahead of the rest of the field with more than £290m-worth of work spread across just six contracts.

The bulk of its workload – £282m – was in the commercial sector. The largest deals were for London offices: a £166.3m contract for Land Securities, and a £82.7m job for Waterfront Limited Partnership. The company also landed a £26.9m offices contract in Bristol for Deeley Freed.
These bumper contracts pushed Sir Robert up to third place from eighth in the commercial sector chart, and from 19th position to 11th in the 12-month table. It was also a new entrant at fifth place in the South East regional chart.

Miller Construction was also a new entrant to January’s chart in second place, although its £160.5m workload lagged considerably behind Sir Robert McAlpine’s haul. Most of Miller’s 10 jobs were in the public sector. The most significant was the £63m new build schools PPP in Fife, as part of the Emblem consortium, which includes Bank of Scotland and Forth Electrical Services. The work is part of Fife Council’s Expanding Horizons project and will see nine new schools and other community facilities built across the region.

Miller has also been awarded a £30m project by Sanctuary Housing Association to develop and construct new halls of residence at Queen Margaret University College’s brand new campus in East Lothian, Scotland.

Third-placed Kier climbs from fifth place in December thanks to 71 contracts, which will net the contractor more than £137m. This was fairly evenly spread between the public and commercial sectors, and helped to hold Kier steady in third position in the 12-month chart.

Laing O’Rourke shot up eight places to take fourth, on the back of just five contracts. The largest was a £50m office scheme close to London Bridge railway station. The work will involve building an office block for developer Great Portland Estates in Tooley Street on the south bank of the River Thames. Other deals included a £17m deal with Saxon Developments for flats in Nottingham, and a £14m project for South Manchester University Hospital NHS Trust. 

Balfour Beatty, which dominated the chart for much of 2005, fell to fifth place. It secured more than £84m of work, mostly in the public sector, plus some commercial work. A relatively quiet January did little to dent its prime position in the 12-month table, where it maintains its huge lead.

Shepherd was another new entrant in sixth position, with just three contracts. It continues its work for the Berkeley Clarence Dock Company, with nearly £30m of work. It is working on part of the new development, located next to the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, which consists of a multi-storey apartment block containing 185 luxury apartments and penthouses, offices and car parking. Shepherd also bagged £27m of work building Stockton Riverside College in Stockton on Tees for the Terrace Hill Group.

Norwest Holst rose from 14th to seventh place, its most notable project being the £22m Leicester Grammar School, forming the bulk of its £54.3m haul.

Morgan Sindall was in eighth position with £49m, gaining work in commercial, housing and public sectors, and rising to fifth place from sixth in the 12-month chart. Close behind in ninth was Taylor Woodrow with £48.8m, boosting its chart position by 10 places since December.

Wates rose from 20th position to 10th with a particularly strong performance in the public sector. It was awarded the £19.4m Harris Academy, which will occupy a 1.4ha site in South Norwood, London. The scheme is scheduled to last 73 weeks.

Other sizeable projects in January included a £14m housing development for 11th-placed Willmott Dixon on behalf of Fortunegate Housing. Galliford Try was another new entrant in 12th, winning the £18.2m Hospital Key Worker PPP scheme in Chelmsford, Essex for Swan Housing Group.

The chart’s other new entrants were Geoffrey Osborne (18th); Beard (20th); Renew (22nd); Dew Pitchmastic (24th); Costain (27th) Styles & Wood (28th); C Spencer (29th); Stradform (38th); Caddick (43rd); Jarvis Group Harpenden (47th); Borras Construction (48th) and Leadbitter (49th).

PDF of market data January 2006