Bouygues eyes growth after restructure

The chairman of Bouygues UK says the contractor is now poised to take advantage of a recovery in the construction market following a restructure of the business that has seen it reshaped around four new management units,

Madani Sow told Building he expects the British construction industry to stage a recovery before its continental neighbours and said that the firm’s year-long restructure will position it for growth.

Acquisitions mean Bouygues now has 10 wholly or part owned subsidiaries in the UK, giving it collective UK turnover of nearly £1.6bn.

The firm’s UK restructure has created four new management units operating under Bouygues UK: Bouygues construction, housing, development and Thomas Vale.

Both the construction and housing units incorporate the activities of three contractors acquired in recent years by the international Bouygues Group - Warings, Leadbitter and Denne.

Bouygues said this did not mean that the three acquired brands would be phased out, but the firm would seek to boost the profile of the Bouygues UK brand across the country.

Sow said that the restructure was about both efficiency and branding and suggested the acquisition of the British contractors – which began with Warings in 2007 – had created confusion because the international firm, rather than Bouygues UK, was the company making the acquisitions.

Sow said: “The last twelve months have been heavy but we wanted to do the re-organisation immediately to take advantage of the recovery which I hope will happen soon.”

“Now, it is much easier because the mother company is not the international company but the UK company and that’s also easier for our clients,” he said.

He confirmed the firm is not planning further acquisitions and said that he is now satisfied with its sectors and geographical spread, which stretches from Southampton to Manchester and Sheffield and includes Wales.

The construction management unit operates in four UK regions -London & South East, Western, Central South and Central North and works within sectors such as commercial, leisure, luxury residential, and the public sector including healthcare and education. It is headed up by managing director Lionel Christolomme.

The housing unit is led by Paul Abson as managing director, operates across three UK regions - Central, London, and the South East, and focuses on residential and mixed tenure developments, care and extra care facilities and student accommodation,

Midlands-based Thomas Vale is led up by managing director Tony Hyde while the development management unit is headed up by Nicolas Guérin as managing director.