If Laing lost, who wins? | Features

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