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The changing face of contracting
How the top 10 construction firms of a decade ago
have reinvented themselves in a bid to boost profitability
Position
1989		 Position
1999		 Name Turnover
1988 (£m)		 Turnover
1998 (£m)		 Pre-tax profit
1988 (£m)		 Pre-tax profit
1998 (£m)		  
1 2 Tarmac 2836 (4396) 3160 393 (609) 131 After this year’s demerger, Tarmac is no longer a contractor. Carillion is the contracting offshoot. It aims to do more private finance initiative and service sector work
2 9* Trafalgar House 2676 (4148) 1071* 229 (355) 5* Trafalgar House no longer exists. It was
taken over by Norwegian conglomerate
Kvaerner. Kvaerner Construction
still does competitively tendered work
3 7 Wimpey 1726 (2675) 1402 145 (225) 85 Wimpey is now a housebuilder. Wimpey contracting staff can still be found in Carillion following the homes-for-contracting swap in 1996
4 4 Balfour Beatty 1358 (2105) 2140 54 (84) 75 Balfour Beatty has moved away from competitive contracts to PFI, rail maintenance and other service sector work
5 5 Laing 1356 (2102) 1617 68 (105) 20 Laing has given up competitive tendering. It is focusing on PFI and other negotiated work
6 15 Beazer 1343 (2082) 631 115 (178) 79 Beazer became a pure housebuilder in 1992 after its contracting arm, Kier, was sold by parent Hanson
7 1 Amec 1309 (2029) 3393 62 (96) 69 Now Britain’s biggest construction company, Amec has also strayed from competitive tendering to focus on service sector work and the PFI
8 8 Taylor Woodrow 1260 (1953) 1401 103 (160) 100 Taylor Woodrow is concentrating on facilities management, property deals and housing
9 30 Costain 1158 (1795) 392 89 (138) 0.5 Costain is now backed by Swedish contractor Skanska
10 3 Bovis 1116 (1730) 2319 157 (243) 33.5 Now owned by Australian developer Lend Lease, Bovis focuses on construction management
* figures for Kvaerner Construction  figures in brackets are 1998 equivalents