View Laing O’Rourke’s website

Laing O’Rourke has 27,300 employees. Today, only Balfour Beatty and Carillion are bigger than Laing O’Rourke….and these two are both quoted on the London Stock Exchange.

Ray O’Rourke (pictured), the powerhouse chairman who has driven Laing O’Rourke to its present size, has said that he wants to see the group expand further to a turnover of more than £5bn a year.

O’Rourke became a mainstream player when he dived in for the Laing Construction business, put up for sale eight years ago.  

Since then Laing O’Rourke has:

• expanded its operations in the Middle East, India and Australia
• taken a leading position on off-site fabrication
• established a house-building division.

Tony Douglas recently joined Laing O’Rourke as chief operating officer. The new post means that Douglas is effectively the group’s second in command. He was previously with BAA, a major construction client,  and led its ambitious T5 project at Heathrow.

Laing O’Rourke’s ability to recruit Douglas has been seen in the construction industry as something of a coup.

Latest financial results (12 months to 31 March 2007) show a pre-tax profit of £45m, well up on the previous year’s figure of £34m. Only a year earlier, turnover was £2.3bn, giving an indication of the speed at which Laing O’Rourke is growing. 

Laing O’Rourke has 26 main operating businesses and fuller details of them can be found on its website.

The list includes:

• Construction North
• Construction South
• Infrastructure
• Expanded Piling
• Crown House Technologies
• Laing O’Rourke Australia
• Al Naboodah Laing O’Rourke – a joint venture
• Emirates Precast

Recent news stories:

Laing O'Rourke: demolition pictures on new offsite factory site

Laing O'Rourke has made a start to its new offsite manufacturing plant near Worksop in Derbyshire with a spectacular demolition job.

Laing O'Rourke: demolition pictures 1

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Laing O'Rourke drug crackdown bears fruit

Figures in Laing O'Rourke's latest Human Capital report show that 114 people were ordered off site in the 12 months to 31 March 2007 for failing drug tests compared with 165 the previous year.

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Major projects:

Terminal 5, Heathrow airport, London

It will open March 2008 and has been one of Europe’s largest construction projects. Laing O’Rourke completed 200 work packages on time and on budget.

• Building Terminal 5:
• Terminal 5 construction video:

Al Raha Beach, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Laing O’Rourke in partnership with Aldar Properties is project managing the construction and delivery of a series of waterside developments. They are designed to house a community of 158,000 people.  The project calls for the reclamation of 25m m2 of sand and at its peak will have a workforce of 30,000.

2012 London Olympics

Laing O’Rourke, in joint venture with CH2M Hill and Mace, are delivery partners to the ODA.

Dubai International Air Terminal

Annual report and accounts: full 96-page version

Quote from Ray O’Rourke from latest accounts:

“We are organising and training to work smarter. We will remain at the forefront of fresh thinking in this industry through the use of technology and exploiting opportunities pioneered elsewhere, such as process re-engineering.

Modern methods of safe construction are pursued. Complacency is the enemy of progress and innovation.”

Human capital report:

Extracts from human capital report:

• Laing O’Rourke’s staff rewards package consists of:
  • base salary
  • allowances
  • discretionary bonus
  •  benefits package 
• The average staff salary in Laing O’Rourke’s European operations increased by 6% last year after a 5% lift in the previous year.
• Last year, the average UK base salary was £38,500 (figure in previous year: £36,200).
• Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) reduced from 0.31 to 0.25, while hours worked increased from 90m to 104m