Boost for regional contractors

Regional contractors are benefitting from Carillion’s collapse and the more recent failure of two large regional firms.

Over the past year, Forrest and more recently Dawnus have followed Carillion into administration. Instead of national contractors benefitting from less competition, smaller regional players are boosting their market share.

Glenigan’s construction market intelligence shows that in the 12 months to April 2019, the number of regional contractors have either increased or maintained their presence in nine of out the UK’s 12 regions.

Welsh and Scottish boost

The demise of Swansea-based Dawnus has opened up the construction industry in Wales, where Welsh-based firms have won 60% of the work won by the top 10 contractors.

The market in Scotland also appears to have moved away from more established national contractors.

Robertson, Cruden, CCG and Ogilvie all have their headquarters north of Hadrian’s Wall, while another four members of the Scottish top 10 originate in Ireland.

Across the Irish Sea in Northern Ireland, the industry is totally dominated by local contractors. Most of those top 10 contractors work mainly in Ulster with only Graham, O’Hare & McGovern and Herons Bros making any major incursions in Britain.

In the Midlands, a boom in warehouse and logistics construction continues to benefit Northampton-based Winvic and smaller players are also increasing their presence.

In the West Midlands, Winvic has £164 million-worth of work and Bromsgrove-based Benniman and A&H Construction from Halesowen also feature in the top 10.

Winvic has won £443 million-worth of work in the East Midlands, where the top 10 also includes Derby-based GF Tomlinson and NMCN from Nottinghamshire.

A brace of regional contractors are also established in the latest top 10 for the East of England. Norwich-based RG Carter and Birmingham-based DSP are ranked in sixth and eighth place respectively.

National challenge

In contrast, national contractors have benefitted from the absence of Forrest in the North West’s booming construction industry.

A year ago, Bolton-based Forrest had the third biggest order book in the North West only to collapse last December. There are now no regional players in the top 10 for the North West.

Regional players are also completely absent from London but appear to be faring better in parts of the UK where there are fewer construction opportunities.

GMI, Tolent and Esh are all based in the North East and feature amongst the region’s top 10, while Midas and Dyer & Butler both appear in the top 10 for the South West.

Overall, regional contractors take up 31% of the places in Glenigan’s latest regional tables – up from 26% a year ago – as national contractors chase bigger projects in larger urban areas.