Technical director Paul Eagle believes in a strong foundation for future growth, but warns that the building services industry remains “fragile”.
10 CMB Engineering
“ We are not like other contractors. We do things differently,” says founder and managing director Steve Borley
12 nG Bailey
It’s all about the people for Paul Aulton, managing director of NG Bailey group’s built environment arm.
14 jCa Engineering Engineering director Tom Absalom explains why the ‘golden triangle’ contractor is taking a lead.
16 King & Moffatt
Building partnerships is key for growth, according to chief commercial officer Brian McKiernan
Building Engineering
services association (BEsa)
Rotherwick House, 3 Thomas More Street St Katharine’s & Wapping, London E1W 1YZ
T 020 7313 4900
E membership@thebesa.com thebesa.com
Barbour aB i Hinderton Point, Lloyd Drive, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire CH65 9HQ
T 0151 353 3500
E info@barbour-abi.com barbour-abi.com
As a trade association, the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) supports its members to deliver high-quality building engineering services to improve the built environment. BESA sets and raises industry standards, lobbies for better business practices, such as fair payments and offers its members free professional services. All BESA members undergo rigorous third-party audits against both business assurance and technical competence. BESA members demonstrate organisational capability under the Building Safety Act.
GHCS are a Chartered Quantity Surveying practice specialising in M&E cost management and have been established for 16 years in the UK market. GH Engage were incorporated in 2019 as there was a gap in the market for a technical recruitment agency with a deep understanding of the construction sector and the requirements that each role entails, and the business has now expanded throughout Europe and the US.
Barbour ABI powers the UK built environment with the best intelligence to help their clients grow. With over 1.7 million projects in their dataset, their products and services are renowned for their accuracy, depth, and efficacy. Best known for their construction project leads, Barbour ABI’s portfolio includes analytics, market research reports and bespoke consultancy. Over 3,000 organisations from across the built environment supply chain, in addition to government and public sector bodies such as HM Treasury, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Office for National Statistics trust Barbour ABI as their data partners.
This report ranks contractors by their total turnover for the previous financial year and is compiled using published company accounts and information from Companies House.
As shown in the rankings, the top 30 players have remained relatively stable, posting an impressive year of 23% growth — far surpassing the 2024 construction industry average of 2% —with a combined turnover of £6.4bn
The top 30 account for a quarter of M&E industry sector turnover of £23bn, suggesting room for further consolidation in what is still a highly fragmented industry.
Despite various economic headwinds, the outlook for 2025 remains optimistic. In its annual health-check for the economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted UK GDP growth of
to the 6th edition of the Top 30 Mechanical and Electrical (M&E) Contractors Report, jointly produced by GHCS/GH Engage and the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA), supported by Barbour ABI
The top 30 players have remained relatively stable, posting an impressive year of 23% growth — with a combined turnover of £6.4bn.
rEBECCa fox MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR , BESA
1.2% this year, rising to 1.4% in 2026. Barbour ABI data shows 25,000 approved projects worth £163bn with planned start dates in 2025, fuelled by Government investment in infrastructure and housing. When you consider that the M&E work in these projects can be upwards of 60% of the total value, it bodes well for the sector.
The Government’s £600m investment in construction industry skills is timely. With 10 new ‘technical excellence colleges,’ expanded skills bootcamps, and financial incentives for foundation apprenticeships, the sector is being equipped with the talent pipeline it urgently needs to ‘get Britain building’.
When combined with the growing adoption of technologies like Building Information Modelling (BIM), drones, and robotics, these measures present a real opportunity to tackle the industry’s persistent productivity challenge.
The top 30 companies in this report are well placed to champion innovation, invest in skills, and help shape a safer, more resilient, and energy efficient built environment n
Barbour ABI data shows 25,000 approved projects worth £163bn planned to start in 2025
Key trends
WORDS: Go Khan hassan MANAGING DIRECTOR , GHCS/GH ENGAGE
Calm in the face of adversity
The global economy is going through yet another period of turmoil. Donald Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs have triggered a hugely damaging trade war with China and global stock markets reacted accordingly.
The long-term impact is uncertain, but the largest M&E engineering businesses covered in this report remain surprisingly calm in the face of this latest “bump in the road”.
The emerging trend goes beyond simple ‘resilience’. New business models and subtle shifts in supply chains are insulating parts of the sector from the wider economic uncertainty.
A trade war was the last thing anyone needed so soon after the collapse of ISG. As JCA’s Tom Absalom says (see page 14) “It seems to be every two years something comes along to disrupt our market.”
Yet, Absalom’s company is one of a number that have started to operate outside ‘traditional’ M&E sector boundaries and are finding niche markets that not only value but are
The specialist building engineering sector has some significant advantages because of its ability to add value in sectors that are (as much as possible in these times of higher labour costs and market volatility) largely ‘recession proof’.
dependent on high quality engineering services and built assets and are resilient in the face of short-term financial shocks.
Knowledge economy boon
The UK has become something of a ‘services superpower’ with services as the backbone of the UK economy, providing a major competitive advantage. The UK is the world’s second-largest exporter of services, behind only the United States. These strengths are very broad – not just banking and finance but also professional services, education, creative industries, scientific and medical research and so on.
Globally, the UK economy runs a large trade deficit in goods (over £200bn last year) but that is almost totally balanced out by our surplus in service-sector exports.
As a result, the specialist building engineering sector has some significant advantages because of its ability to add value in sectors that are (as much as possible in these times of higher labour costs and market volatility) largely ‘recession proof’. This includes data centres, which are now receiving another huge boost from the growth in AI, pharmaceutical production and research facilities, life sciences laboratories, energy transition, and defence. >>
Top 30 UK M&E contractors
* TClarke Contracting Ltd revenue figure of £847m is for period of 15 months ending 31st March 2025 due to
following its recent acquisition.
• The data has been compiled from a mixture of accounts provided directly by contractors who responded to this survey and other public sources. • The contractors identified are those whose core services are within the M&E construction installation sector, some of whom also offer FM services.
Not only are these sectors continuing to build with confidence, but they are also heavily reliant on high value M&E engineering to provide sterile rooms, resilient close control cooling, water and energy efficiency. In many such facilities, the services represent upwards of 60% of the value of the overall project and, in a growing number, the M&E provider is taking the role of lead contractor.
As Absalom puts it: “It does not make sense to employ a main contractor who would only build 20 or 25% of the project and sub-contract the rest.”
This trend is also upending the traditional supply chain structure that has characterised construction for decades and which is, in large part, responsible for repeated failures to deliver projects on time, to budget, safely and sustainably. Specialist contractors were repeatably exposed to financial risks, unfair contract clauses, late payments and soaring insurance and material costs.
In the meantime, more mainstream construction has been badly hit by delayed investment and rising costs, further impeded by April’s rise in employers’ National Insurance contributions. This, of course, has wider implications. Not least the government’s ambition to build 1.5 million new homes because another key finding of our report is that builders and developers are turning their back on the residential sector in search of less risky investments. In fact, the rate of housebuilding in London hit a 16-year low in the first quarter of this year, largely due to post-Grenfell safety regulations creating planning delays.
The final report issued by the Grenfell Tower public inquiry in September last year also contained a raft of proposals for further regulation of the industry and, while it received wholehearted support from the government, it further reduced investors’ appetite for bankrolling residential projects.
WORDS
: david fris E CHIEF E xECUTIvE , BESA GROUP
Slow industry reform
In 2018, we were promised that ‘another Carillion’ would never happen again, but once more thousands of small supply chain businesses were left picking up the pieces from the ISG collapse. On the plus side, our report shows that many firms are perfectly capable of reinventing themselves to survive and thrive.
The government, to its credit, appears to recognise the importance of our industry as an engine for growth. In the recent Spring Statement, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves committed a further £13bn, on top of the £100bn announced in the autumn budget, to support spending on infrastructure, housing, and defence over the life of this Parliament .
For example, when ISG collapsed, a £130 million three-school campus project in Cardiff was left with just the groundworks complete and a whole local supply chain in turmoil. Local firm CMB Engineering was leading the M&E team and itself faced a huge loss. However, as founder and MD Steve Borley tells us (on page 10) their solution was radical. It approached the council and offered to take on the role of principal contractor and get the job finished.
Just seven weeks after ISG went under, the whole team were back on site and the Fairwater campus project is still on schedule and budget.
An exception? Maybe, but still a model that is clearly inspiring others and which suits those markets and clients that properly value what our industry has to offer.
The government, to its credit, appears to recognise the importance of our industry as an engine for growth. In the recent Spring Statement, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves committed a further £13bn, on top of the £100bn announced in the Autumn Budget, to support spending on infrastructure, housing, and defence over the life of this Parliament.
Investors looking for the potential for good returns when markets are uncertain should be looking hard at these figures – particularly if they are residential.
However, the global financial picture and the risky image of construction has, naturally, created hesitancy among investors, and while there is clearly demand, there is also delay.
Paul Aulton of NG Bailey tells us (see page 12) that the number of pending decisions almost doubled last year. “Even though we are often the preferred bidder we still have to wait – and in the meantime you have to manage resources carefully.”.
hope for the future
As well as the specific challenges with planning approvals in London, the issues affecting higher risk buildings (HRBs) hit the headlines with some projects held up for over 40 weeks at huge expense to developers. Teething problems and lack of resource at the Building Safety Regulator have created an ongoing problem that will not be solved quickly.
Most of the projects held up at planning ‘Gateway Two’ are refurbishment applications reflecting the enormous backlog of maintenance work required to bring HRBs up to standard. This seems to have caught the regulator by surprise and needs a rapid solution to get this critical sector moving again.
However, at a time of when investors might be looking for more certain outcomes the ‘recession proof’ facilities market offers hope and,
as the fast-growing Irish contractor King & Moffatt typifies, the UK is now regarded by many overseas firms as a stable market thanks to the growth in its high-tech industries.
“We have a very strong pipeline of work in the UK,” says Brian McKiernan (on page 16). “The UK is stable and growing – there are good prospects there for us.”
However, keeping up with demand remains a challenge – especially as the work becomes more technical. This requires cracking the industry’s long-term problems with recruitment and training.
“The lack of capacity is a challenge right across the sector,” says Dalkia UK ’s Paul Eagle (on page 8). “There is also additional pressure created by the whole new layer of competence requirements – organisational and individual – because of the building safety regime.”
At the start of 2025, the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) said the UK needed more than 250,000 extra workers by 2028. The government has announced a £600m investment over the next four years to train up to 60,000 more skilled construction workers
There is also a major shortage of specific, targeted training in specialist building skills due to historic low demand. As a result, BESA has launched its Skills Legacy programme to tackle one of the biggest hurdles faced by the further education (FE) sector – the lack of trainers and assessors from our industry.
It plans to recruit 100 experienced engineers motivated to ‘give something back’ by qualifying as trainers, assessors and building safety auditors. The Manly Trust is fully funding the first 50 to give the scheme a welcome early boost.
So, even in this perennially difficult area, we are seeing a change of approach that raises hope of a better future, and, as NG Bailey’s Paul Aulton says (on page 12) the industry can celebrate the fact that it offers excellent career prospects.
“This is a fantastic industry with great characters, and we should make more of the fact that we create great places for future generations” n
The not so new kid on the block
The name Dalkia might be relatively new, but it is one of the country’s largest building services firms with annual revenues above £600 million and more than 4,000 employees working from 25 offices.
The company, which is also backed by the French energy giant EDF, was rebranded in July 2023 from Imtech Group and has recently completed a major integration process so that it now offers a wide range of technical services to its large client base.
So, a new(ish) name but one that commands a considerable pedigree that includes the former Matthew Hall business and boasts a strong presence in the defence, healthcare and energy transition sectors.
Technical director Paul Eagle (pictured above right) also believes the company has a strong foundation for future growth but warns that the building services industry remains “fragile”, citing the collapse of ISG last September as a reason for caution.
“We have had quite a couple of years. The ISG collapse was shocking for everyone – and for me, personally, as I worked with a lot of people there. The industry is still quite fragile and there’s a lot of risk in the marketplace, which is why we are very clear about not chasing work and ensuring we have the right relationships in place.
“We are a big multi-faceted company, but we are not about aggressive growth. We would much rather work with the right people on the right projects.”
rE lationships
He said that 90% of Dalkia’s turnover in 2024 was repeat work with the firm’s primary ‘strategy partners’. The group also benefits from its historic
relationships built through Imtech and SPIE/Matthew Hall, and although the integration simplified the regional structure of the business, Eagle says they worked hard to retain those valuable connections from the past.
These will help it to exploit likely opportunities in decarbonisation and energy retrofit along with a gradual recovery in the commercial office market – particularly in London.
“People don’t want to be sitting in an office space that doesn’t meet sustainability goals, so momentum is building in retrofit driven by the decarbonisation agenda. You can now charge a premium rent for sustainable spaces and people want to be associated with them.”
The group is also actively engaged in supporting net zero energy infrastructure projects, delivering M&E services to nuclear, renewables, green hydrogen, carbon capture facilities, as well as supporting critical power network investment and resilience programmes.
However, Dalkia like most companies in the sector is concerned about skills shortages and the level of “people resources” available to meet demand particularly with so many major infrastructure projects in the pipeline including hospitals and data centres.
“The lack of capacity is a challenge right across the sector. There is also additional pressure created by the whole new layer of competence requirements – organisational and individual –because of the building safety regime,” says Eagle.
Eagle, who recently stepped up to become chair of BESA’s highly influential Technical Committee, is also a member of BESA’s Building Safety Act advisory group
The industry is still quite fragile and there’s a lot of risk in the marketplace, which is why we are very clear about not chasing work and ensuring we have the right relationships in place.
and says Dalkia is looking closely at what it is doing around training, competence and reporting. This includes creating a module for reporting competence across the group in line with the increased focus on safety.
“It’s going to take a few more years for the industry to get their head around all this change, though,” he said. “There are still a lot of wrong perceptions around what is in the legislation – so we need greater clarity on that, which is why the work BESA is doing is so important.”
He said there was also a misconception that contractors would approach higher risk buildings (HRBs) differently from other projects. “All your processes should be the same including handover etc. with just an extra layer of reporting for HRBs – we can’t, and we mustn’t operate two models.”
Eagle stresses the importance of making buildings “maintainable” which puts more emphasis on improving handover and explaining that any work that happens post-handover can “change the dynamic of the building” –not least when it comes to firestopping.
“Doing the right thing even when noone is looking is a great quote,” said Eagle. “That means we need to upskill all our people.”
The end of ‘grandfather rights’ is another significant challenge to the way the industry ensures technical and professional compliance and will prompt an important re-set when it comes to skills, according to Eagle.
Car EE r
Apprenticeships will, therefore, be a key focus for Dalkia in 2025, with the company looking to grow from the current 270 apprentices to over 400 in the next two years. “I was an apprentice myself and it’s a great way to enter the industry and have a brilliant career,” he said.
“The company has a lot to offer, and people can see clear pathways for growth even up into EDF at the highest level. It’s a real benefit if you can offer opportunities to diversify without people having to change employers.”
Artificial intelligence (AI) is another potential skills resource that will become increasingly important to companies like Dalkia and Eagle expects it to be a core part of the business in 2026.
“For it to be effective you need to have good data in a common environment including from our supply chains,” he explains, “That consistency is something we are working on now.
“You also need to be conscious of where the data is coming from because the ‘rubbish in rubbish out’ principle applies. We all get masses of data, so the secret is getting it into the right places. It’s a big process to work through, but if we get it right it will be transformational.” n
Eagle also paid tribute to Steve Wignall, retiring managing director of Dalkia Engineering, who completed a distinguished career by successfully steering the group through its complex integration process last year.
www.dalkia.co.uk
Cardiff-based CMB Engineering values its reputation as a ‘no grief’ contractor above all else. Its firm focus on avoiding conflict and improving and driving collaboration also helped it turn one of last year’s most traumatic industry events into a major positive.
Founder and managing director Steve Borley (pictured below) is a fan of the 1960s rock band The Kinks. He uses their song ‘I’m Not like Everybody Else’, which also featured in the hit T v show The Sopranos, as inspiration. The company even made a motivational video using the song as its soundtrack.
We’re ‘not like everybody else’
who faced going bust,” says Borley. “At one point it looked like most of regional supply chain could be decimated…so we went to the council and offered to act as principal contractor until Christmas to allow the supply chain to get paid and protect project delivery.”
The council thanked them for the offer but did not think it was possible. It soon became apparent that the task to appoint another tier one contractor would be time consuming and the project was at a critical stage with the site left open to the elements, large quantities of materials due to be delivered and a supply chain in danger of going out of business.
“We are not like other contractors. We do things differently,” says Borley. “I always tell our apprentices to be themselves. Don’t aim to be like the old boss, be yourself and keep re-inventing yourself.”
Doing things differently has been at the heart of the company’s development since the former Crown House apprentice decided to plough his own furrow in 1992. It reached a pinnacle last year in the wake of the catastrophic collapse of the main contractor ISG.
CMB was one of the biggest supply chain partners to ISG in the whole of Wales and the South West of England including playing a key role in the £130million Fairwater Community Campus project for Cardiff Council, so the whole episode had the potential to be a “big bump” according to Borley.
paniC
“There were a lot of other subcontractors on the hook too, and I took panic-stricken calls from other firms
Also to secure the knowledge and the existing management a big decision needed to be made quickly. Following lengthy discussions with the council’s advisors and lawyers, ‘Option 7’ was adopted to appoint Borley Engineering Services Ltd (BESL) to avoid confusion on site with the trading name of CMB Engineering.
The company was initially taken on as ‘emergency principal contractor’ and, just six weeks after the collapse of ISG, the whole construction team was back on site.
“That should have been impossible, but we took on the project’s planner and M&E co-ordinator and kept most of the site team together, so we hit the ground running,” says Borley.
Many of the contractors working on the project are based within 20 miles of the Fairwater site which includes the construction of three new build schools on a single campus.
“We told the suppliers at a meeting at Cardiff City Stadium this won’t be like working for a tier one contractor. We will succeed or fail together – and we are succeeding,” said Borley. “We are not compromising on quality but driving the team to take pride in our work, respect our fellow partners and drive collaboration as we work together. That’s how we add value.”
He believes this is an example of how specialist local contractors can step up to take on wider responsibility for projects. Even the project director, package managers and surveyors have been out on site cleaning the workfaces and filling the bins and skips – leading by example.
“Local contractors are the future and sometimes overlooked on major projects,” says Borley. “Most of the national services contractors don’t have a base here [in Wales] and local companies dominate the space. We will happily partner with electrical contractors who are sometimes in competition with us. Why wouldn’t we?
“The reason a lot of the major projects go wrong is that national firms come in and don’t employ anyone directly so there is no loyalty. People are just thinking about where their next job is coming from, so you lose their knowledge and labour long before the project is completed. That does not happen with directly employed staff and is the reason we have grown so strong in the region.”
CMB offers a range of engineering services, including M&E services, contract management, maintenance, and pre-construction services. It specialises in delivering specialist clean room production facilities and sports facilities and passed the £100 million turnover mark last year (despite the ‘bump’ of ISG) and expects to be in the same region in 2025.
Cash flow
“We have posted a profit in 32 years out of 33 which is pretty good for this industry – and the year we didn’t was because of an error on a prior year due to a new accounting system. Keeping good cash flow is crucial. Our cash level is generally around 20% of turnover, which means we have never had to rely on a bank,” says Borley.
“We didn’t really have a plan when we started but we were careful with overheads to ensure if turnover halved, we could still break even. I always wanted a minimum of 10% in the bank so we could pay our bills at the end of the month – and I could sleep at night.”
Borley started his career in 1974 as an apprentice for Crown House Engineering and rose quickly to become the company’s youngest ever manager before leaving to set up his own firm in 1992. And last year, he received a special award from BESA Wales for his 50 years’ service to the industry.
His other great passion is Cardiff City Football Club. He is a former chairman and remains on the board. He also played a key role in the development of the club’s new stadium and training academy. “I was wearing a lot of hats on that project,” he recalls, adding that CMB even supplied and fitted the 33,500 seats.
And, as a former student apprentice, he believes “passionately” in that route into the industry. 80% of the current workforce joined as apprentices
including most of the directors and CMB takes on between four and six every year.
“It used to be ‘dead man’s shoes’ for promotion in this industry, but we want our apprentices to progress quickly. We have high expectations for them and want them to treat their employment as a career path. By the time they are 23 we expect them to be supervisors, at 26 foremen, and reach site manager level by 28.
“We give them the clear career path but ambition is down to them.”
The company built its own training academy because it found that apprentices weren’t getting enough practical experience in college. They progress to working on site with people who have been through the same process “so have time for them” says Borley. Days of painting pipe and making tea are long gone.
When asked if he thought the company could take on more principal contractor roles, he says it is already doing that on specialist semi-conductor and clean room projects. “We believe in a collaborative approach to contracting, avoiding confrontation, and promoting co-operation and teamwork. We bring those principles to the table when working with traditional tier one contractors who are our main source of work.
“We do not want to go to work to fight. If there is a breakdown in communication that’s when the problems start. There is nothing like a good relationship,” he adds.
Borley also believes many tier ones cut themselves off from the day-to-day communication and just sit in their on-site offices (“Hiltons”) writing emails, issuing notices when they should be out speaking to people at the workface.
“If you treat people with respect they will want to work for you,” he says. “We pay people on time and don’t have deductions, and we base the business on repeat work and referrals. We’ve created our own culture by ‘not being like everybody else’.”
And what about the added risk of taking on more principal contractor roles?
“You take a risk crossing the road these days.” n
www.cmbengineering.co.uk
It’s all about the people
Founded in 1921 as a small electrical contractor, NG Bailey remains family owned and independent. It is now one of the UK’s largest building engineering and infrastructure services firms employing over 3,500 people with offices all over the UK.
That independence and its people are the key strengths, which have allowed it to remain resilient in the face of the considerable challenges faced by the sector in recent years, according to Paul Aulton (pictured above right), managing director of the group’s built environment arm.
“We have a flat management structure, which allows us to be agile and react quickly to changing situations,” he says. “We have good cash flow and strong net assets and cash balances, which gives us stability and our people have shown us a lot of loyalty over the years.”
The group has a strong forward order book of around £1.6bn of which about 80% is in what Aulton describes as “recession resilient areas” like defence, power transition, data centres, grid decarbonisation, healthcare, and aviation.
“We also have a comprehensive end-to-end built environment offering, from power infrastructure, complex engineering, offsite manufacture and facilities management.”
NG Bailey has managed to insulate itself, to an extent, from the ups and downs of the construction market because it is “highly selective about who we work for, the terms of procurement, and the markets we operate in”, he adds.
BalanCE d
“Like many, we couldn’t escape the rapid inflation caused by the post-Covid, post-Brexit turmoil, but we navigated it well by keeping a balanced portfolio of projects and not chasing work.”
The company is also evolving the way it delivers projects so that now around 60% of its M&E engineering goes through preferred tier one contractors, compared to 100% ten years ago.
“We have strong relationships with key tier one partners where there’s a good cultural fit, while also expanding our direct delivery and working with partners who share our values and collaborative approach,” says Aulton. “This shift gives us greater flexibility, control, and alignment with our commitment to quality, safety, and customer satisfaction.”
Another benefit of independence is that NG Bailey is not focused on set targets based on year-on-year revenue growth but rather on long-term sustainable profit, he explains.
NG Bailey played a crucial role in design and installation of MEP services at the Luton DART project
Aulton also expects to see even more activity in the data centre market on the back of AI developments but says there are not enough suppliers with the right skills or capacity to deliver “the sheer scale and size of what is being proposed, so that will be a challenge”.
There is also a “big conversation” around securing resource and capacity for investment in hospitals and defence but due to growing pressure on public sector budgets the timing is uncertain.
“The number of pending decisions almost doubled last year, and even though we are often the preferred bidder we still have to wait – and in the meantime you have to manage resources carefully.”
Wage inflation is another increasingly tricky issue for the industry, but NG Bailey says it has a good supply of people coming through. It has a strong reputation for investment in training and has been taking on apprentices every year since 1934. “Which won’t stop anytime soon,” says Aulton.
It recruited 60 last year and will take on a similar number this year with 40 applicants for every place. “We set a high bar, so anyone who gets onto one of our schemes really deserves it.”
The group now offers 16 different types of apprenticeship to reflect the broader mix of skills needed in modern M&E engineering and it recently launched a graduate scheme.
However, Aulton notes a “changing culture” in the younger generation to which the group has had to adapt.
For example, they are very much more aware of general wellbeing and the importance of a good life/work balance.
“We’re seeing exciting shifts in the world of work that are here to stay, and it’s up to us to embrace them with flexibility and forward thinking. There’s a wealth of transferable talent out there, including individuals who’ve taken career breaks, with people returning to the workforce, bringing with them incredible skills.
i nClUsivE
“By opening up more inclusive pathways, we can bring fresh perspectives and valuable experience into our business.”
Aulton adds that the company gets good feedback from clients about its people skills, but he recognises a need “to keep working on career development and make sure our people take advantage of the opportunities available within the business”.
“Attrition rates are a bit higher than we would like them to be,” he says.
NG Bailey also believes it has a responsibility to leave the industry in a better place for future generations, and that is one reason why it has been heavily involved with BESA’s work to help the industry adopt the requirements of the Building Safety Act
“There are lots of misconceptions and misunderstandings around the legislation and that’s leading to delays in getting projects signed off,” says Aulton. “But we have always been a highly technical business and at the forefront of industry changes with BESA over the years.
“We embrace these things because they are being done for the right reasons. The industry needs to be a lot better at selfstarting,
but we always seem to end up needing legislation because there are pockets of the industry that will always cling to traditional ways of working.”
He also says the whole issue of competence “needs a lot of work”. NG Bailey has looked at bringing more trades in-house to safeguard safety and quality standards but also believes in supporting its supply chains.
“We have some great specialist suppliers, and we make 99% of payments within 60 days or less because we are very conscious of the fragility out there and the difficulties many are facing, so we do look closely at who is working for who and how to spread our risk.”
And, in the main, he believes the industry remains a “fantastic industry with great characters” and there needs to be more celebration of the fact that “we create great places for future generations”.
He cites the group’s annual longservice award dinner as an example. Last year, seven NG Bailey employees celebrated more than 40 years’ service and 30 marked over 21 years. The company also pays for each employee to spend two days volunteering which plays into its family ethos of “making sure we put more back into society than we take out.”
“Many of our apprentices go and talk to schools about the industry which makes me hopeful and proud. Most kids seem to think we fix cars, so it’s important that other young people sell the sector and demonstrate the amazing opportunities we have to offer.” n
www.ngbailey.com
NG Bailey were involved in London’s major infrastructure project – the Silvertown Tunnel
The ‘golden triangle’ contractor taking a lead
JCA Engineering’s business model of working exclusively and directly for clients in the high tech and life sciences industries, seems to be paying dividends.
Described by engineering director Tom Absalom (pictured right) as “an engineering led principal contractor”, the 21-year-old business was acquired by the UK’s largest FM group Mitie in late 2023. However, Absalom says that has not changed the way it operates.
“Being part of a much larger entity does give us more firepower in the market, but the fundamental focus of JCA has not changed because Mitie doesn’t want it to. We were acquired because we are a business that fills a gap in their portfolio.”
are the kind of projects where it does not make sense to employ a main contractor who would only build 20 or 25% of the project and then sub-contract the rest.”
Almost all the company’s work last year was repeat business and many of its projects start with the design and planning of a facility and then progress to construction and on through lifecycle operation.
ai dEMand
JCA has benefited hugely from the buoyant data centre market and Absalom now sees even greater growth to come with the surge in demand for artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
“Previously, it was largely about servicing cloud computing requirements, but AI is now the big disruptor. It is driving up demand for power and is changing the format of data centres,” he says. “In that kind of environment, you have to be very dynamic and collaborative”
While its business model has kept JCA away from many of the industry’s problems in recent years, Absalom points out that its supply chain partners are exposed, and this has led to issues around pricing and product availability.
requirements because of the high-tech sectors in which it operates.
“We have a future talent programme that takes people through traditional apprenticeship schemes, and then on to a higher technical level, and now with Mitie we have more opportunities for developing talent.
“But you can’t do this sort of thing overnight, so we also need to be an employer of choice for the here and now,” he adds. “We are heavily focused on health & wellbeing as we are extremely mindful of the above average suicide rate in construction. It is far higher than it should be, and we must protect and nurture our most valuable resource.”
JCA recently won the 2024 RoSPA Gold Award for Health at Work. This award considers a wide range of occupational health and wellbeing issues, including
JCA undertakes the design, construction, fit out and operation of buildings and facilities with business-critical engineering systems and working directly for those clients has insulated JCA, largely, from the current uncertainty in the wider construction sector.
“We did very little sub-contract work and stopped working as a sub-contractor entirely in 2012 and now focus on facilities where a high proportion of the value is in M&E services,” says Absalom. “These
“It seems to be every two years something comes along and disrupts the industry,” he says. “The wider economic picture is making things tricky just now and evolution in data centre design does expose us to new products and suppliers.” Skills shortages are also an issue for the sector and JCA has particular
Kao Data London One is designed, built and maintained by JCA
We now focus on facilities where a high proportion of the value is in M&e services. These are the kind of projects where it does not make sense to employ a main contractor who would only build 20 or 25% of the project and then sub-contract the rest.
the identification, assessment, monitoring and prevention of health risks, occupational hygiene and wellness at work, including mental health.
Absalom says focusing on this aspect of employment is key to their strategy for meeting future demand.
“We are always hiring because we have a clear idea of what we will need, but we don’t do a lot of marketing, we rely on word of mouth. If we employ someone who likes working here, they will tell two or three others. That’s the secret.”
And it is not all high tech, there is still a need for “good old-fashioned engineering skills”, according to Absalom.
“Replacing a fan coil might not sound particularly sexy but these things are vital. And we are getting more and more into decarbonisation of existing facilities which is particularly challenging.
“It’s all very well putting up a shiny new sustainable building, but what about the 30-year-old one next door? It might need a completely new the power supply to allow for heat pumps etc. and that’s something we can also do for landlords.”
The industry also needs to get better about explaining the benefits of decarbonisation, he believes. The “low hanging fruit” has pretty much been picked and achieving net zero will not be about getting your money back.
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“Yes, if you undertake decarbonisation well you can do it efficiently, but there will always be a cost. You need to look at longer term benefits which can be hard to quantify as an engineer. It means something different to each organisation and how much value they place on net zero as part of their business future – that’s not an engineering decision.”
So, the digital and life sciences sectors will continue to grow and JCA’s geographical location in Stevenage in the heart of England’s high tech ‘golden triangle’ means it is well placed to benefit. The demand for data services will not diminish any time soon but there are lots of questions about where these facilities should be built and how they can be more resource efficient.
“Data centres used to depend on some level of evaporative cooling which consumes large amounts of water. This has become a significant issue and led to greater focus on water usage efficiency,” explains Absalom.
“With AI more of the cooling goes via a liquid direct to the chip, so the facility can operate at higher temperatures and doesn’t need so much evaporative cooling. However, they do produce a lot of waste heat and that could be a hugely valuable resource for other purposes like district heating schemes or the poly tunnels used for growing food.
“The Utopia is positioning your data centre in an urban development close to a requirement for waste heat. However, that requires joined up thinking through the planning system,” says Absalom. “If you build a housing estate, everyone in those homes is going to be streaming T v and using lots of data, but they also have a need for heat – so let’s join the two things up.” n
www.jca.co.uk
Building partnerships is key for growing King & Moffatt
Since being founded as a small electrical contractor in 1978 in Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland, King & Moffatt Building Services has evolved into a major player in M&E engineering across Europe and beyond.
What was started as a local business by Pat King and John Moffatt is now a £160million group serving advanced industries across the UK, mainland Europe, and, most recently, North America. It now offers a full range of M&E services, as well as integrated facility management solutions and expects to grow to £230m in 2025.
Central to this growth is a strategy built on long-term partnerships. Whether following long-standing clients into new territories or investing in local capability, the company’s expansion— most recently into Canada - has always been guided by client demand and collaboration.
It also recently doubled the size of its head office with the investment in an Innovation and Technology Centre and has just opened new branches in Frankfurt and Dublin.
This partnership-led approach, coupled with technical expertise and steady investment in innovation, has positioned King & Moffatt as a trusted name across multiple high-growth sectors. And the UK is the group’s strongest market with £73m of its revenue there last year and it expects to almost double that in 2025.
McKiernan,, Chief Commercial Officer, King & Moffatt
“We have a very strong pipeline of work in the UK,” says chief commercial officer Brian McKiernan . “The UK is stable and growing – there are good prospects there for us.”
Ireland, on the other hand, is more challenging, he says. “It is not as stable as the UK going forward. For example, the industry has issues with power supplies which are holding things up. Planning permission is also not easy. Anyone can raise a local objection if they are prepared to pay €50 so we have all sorts of people holding up projects and that hits growth.”
BlUE Chip
The company offers a full service from design (including design & build) to installation and maintenance, of M&E services. Its model over the past decade has been to work for ‘blue chip’ clients in sectors like advanced manufacturing, data centres, life sciences, food and healthcare and follow them as a preferred supplier as their businesses expand at home and abroad.
“We don’t chase every piece of work in every sector. We are interested in building relationships that allow us to grow steadily,” says McKiernan. “We try to work in recession proof industries and offer specialist services in projects worth between £5m and £50m – not everyone can do what we do.”
Of course, working in such rarefied markets calls for high calibre skills and McKiernan admits this can be a challenge. “Attracting and retaining the right people is a struggle for everyone in the industry and anyone who says otherwise isn’t being truthful.”
King & Moffatt directly employs 570 people, including 160 apprentices, and graduate engineers. Its workforce includes 26 different nationalities, and
Brian
We try to work in recession proof industries and offer specialist services in projects worth between £5m and £50m –not everyone can do what we do.
The company has also extended its 40,000 sq ft off-site fabrication facility close to its head office which remains in Carrick-on-Shannon.
it expects to grow further thanks to the appeal of working in a range of overseas markets. It expanded and updated its in-house training facility in 2022 and continues to work closely with the technical colleges in Ireland and the UK “so we can attract the best and brightest”.
McKiernan also emphasises the importance of the company’s supply chain. “You are only as good as the people underneath you. We have a group of very loyal suppliers, and we need to grow that further to keep up with expansion.”
“We build all mechanical, electrical and building management systems there ourselves. I think we are unique in that we cover everything under one roof. We offer that service so we can deliver fully packaged units, skids, modules, and whatever else our clients may want,” says McKiernan.
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“Our energy services division also offers expertise to help clients reduce their energy consumption, carbon footprint and overall operating costs. More and more clients are looking for net zero not just because it’s the right thing to do but because it is good for business.”
behind its long-term strategy. Currently working towards ISO 50001 certification, the business is putting robust energy management systems in place to improve efficiency and reduce its carbon footprint.
He adds that sustainability is more than “a buzzword” for the company – it is a core value and driving force
It has also outlined a path to achieving net zero, underpinned by its commitment to ISO 14064, which sets standards for measuring and verifying greenhouse gas emissions. These efforts not only signal serious intent but also demonstrate a proactive stance in addressing climate challenges head-on, according to McKiernan.
But the company’s ambitions don’t stop at its own operations. As McKiernan explains, it’s also playing a pivotal role in guiding long-term client partners on their sustainability journeys.
“By sharing expertise, offering strategic advice, and fostering collaborative innovation, we are helping others adopt greener practices – and that, hopefully, will create a ripple effect that contributes to a more sustainable future for the whole sector,” he says. n www.jca.co.uk
