VolkerWessels to take on national contractors with £700m business

Dutch construction giant VolkerWessels has rebranded its UK businesses, bringing them all into one operation.

The seven firms, including Fitzpatrick and GrantRail, now form part of the £700m turnover VolkerWessels UK.

Alan Robertson, managing director of Fitzpatrick, will continue his post with the civils firm and also take on the task of chief executive for the new UK group.

He said: “Big national clients like Network Rail want to know they can acquire the vast majority of their supply chain services from one party. So from that perspective it makes sense in terms of the client offering.”

When asked if the new company would spell the end of well known names like Fitzpatrick he said: “When Carillion acquired Mowlem and Alfred McAlpine, both brands were dropped in fairly short order.

“We’re not looking at dropping our traditional brands like Fitzpatrick. It has been going since the 1920s and has a positive culture and dedicated workforce.”

Robertson expects the business, which will be a top 20 UK contractor, to take on the bigger national players and is targeting a turnover of £1bn.

He added:  “At £700m we are a reasonable sized player and about 20th in the UK. In the fullness of time I would like to be in the top dozen.

“Organic development will get us a long way but we will also look at acquisitions to improve our geographic coverage or skills sets. No doubt some opportunities will be thrown up in the next year or two.”

The companies that make up VolkerWessels UK are:

• VolkerFitzpatrick (Fitzpatrick)
• VolkerRail (Grant Rail)
• VolkerHighways (Gabriel, Crowley, Fitzpatrick Highways service division, MEWS)
• VolkerLaser (Laser)
• VolkerInfra (Visser and Smit Hanab)
• VolkerStevin