‘You’ve got to be really on your game…’ Keltbray’s new chief executive on finding his feet in building

As befits anyone from the Ridings, Karl Goose is nothing but straightforward. “My expertise is more heavy civils,” he admits. “The building side is something I’m learning. New clients, meeting new people.”

Now living in the Cotswolds – “not the posh bit” – Goose, who took up the post of Keltbray chief executive at the beginning of December, hails from a village just outside Wakefield in West Yorkshire. Growing up, his games were cricket and rugby league.

At 54, his rugby playing days are over but he helps out with coaching in union, the latest example of a cross-code convert along the lines of Ireland coach Andy Farrell and France’s defence coach Shaun Edwards, both former team-mates at Wigan. “Union has learnt a lot from league,” Goose says.

His grandfather was a miner – the area where Goose hails from was at one time peppered with pits – but the thought of a life down the pit, even before the closures of the 1980s and 1990s, was not for him. So he went to Nottingham Polytechnic to study quantity surveying.

I got to a point where I wanted to try something new. I had a fantastic time. The business was in a good place – always leave on a high

He spends Monday to Friday in London. It means he is away from his wife and two children during the week, which he concedes can be tough for all. But he adds: “It’s the right thing to do. You can’t pour concrete from home.”

Goose started out at Balfour Beatty before moving over to Amey, which was later bought by Spanish contractor Ferrovial.

By the time he left Ferrovial, he was in charge of a £600m business across the UK and Ireland. He says he got a call from a headhunter about the Keltbray job, which had become available after Vince Corrigan told Keltbray’s owner and founder Brendan Kerr that he would be leaving following a decade at the firm.

Corrigan is still tying up a few loose ends for Keltbray and was on hand to make sure that Goose was up to speed with his new employer.

“I got to a point where I wanted to try something new,” Goose says. “I had a fantastic time. The business was in a good place – always leave on a high.”

He admits: “I knew a little bit about Keltbray, I’d heard of Brendan but that was about it.”

Goose had four interviews with Keltbray and, importantly he says, his wife was included in the process too. “They came and met her, took us out for dinner, got to know us. So, when I landed on the Monday, it wasn’t a complete shock.

“I really clicked with Brendan. It was apparent here [at Keltbray] that there was a lot of longevity of people in the business. That’s a sign of loyalty and he’s very loyal to his people as well.

“He’s so passionate about the business, his backstory, a self-made man – there’s people here who’d probably take a bullet for him.”

For his first 90 days, Goose has been carrying out an assessment of the firm, after which he will unveil a five-year plan which is expected to see turnover grow from its current £350m to a targeted £500m.

Keltbray has seen significant change in recent years, with governance procedures tightened up by former chief executive Darren James who left when Keltbray sold its infrastructure services arm – which included its highways, rail and energy businesses – to private equity 18 months ago, with that bit renamed Aureos.

Goose doesn’t think too much tinkering will be needed. “I’ve been left a pretty good legacy. There’s nothing wrong with [the business] in terms of principles. I’ll be getting into the granular details of the ‘how’.”

Its London commercial business is still core, he says, and a list of the jobs Keltbray is currently working on in the capital includes 55 Old Broad Street for Landsec, the planned site for the 1 Undershaft tower, being developed by a team including Stanhope, and 60 Gracechurch Street for Sellar.

London has been good to Keltbray and if there’s a boom we’ll be there, but we could do with some more [work in London] and it’s a bit stop-start

The current split between its building work and civils work is around 60:40, but Goose would like to get it more even and be less reliant on London.

“London has been good to Keltbray and if there’s a boom we’ll be there,” he says. “But we could do with some more [in London] and it’s a bit stop-start. London turns the taps on and the taps off.”

He wants more balance in the business and a move out of its geographic heartland. Scotland is a region ripe for work, he says, and the firm is opening an office there in Glasgow to be at the coalface of the country’s plans for energy and infrastructure.

And, once its non-compete clause with Aureos runs out, Keltbray will be able to chase the sort of jobs that it is not currently allowed to do. Goose lists that, while at Ferrovial, the projects he was involved with included T2 at Heathrow airport, Crossrail and the Thames Tideway Tunnel.

Keltbray’s ongoing work includes a battery storage scheme at the former Richborough power station site in Kent. It is also working on a defence scheme at Devonport Dockyard. Overseas, its Wentworth design engineering consultancy is working on the Sphere, planned for Abu Dhabi.

For those who remember, the first Sphere opened in Las Vegas two years late and costing nearly $1bn (£825m) more than its original budget. There were plans to open one in Stratford in east London, but its US backer MSG Entertainment pulled by the plug after it was blocked by London mayor Sadiq Khan.

The firm has also been working on HS2, but Goose admits the scheme is something of double-edged sword for the industry. “It’s an example of wonderful engineering,” he says. But the runaway costs have had indirect consequences. “If it’s sucking that much [money] in, ultimately there’s other projects that are not being delivered.”

There is more lump sum in building and contract terms are more onerous. You’ve got to be really on your game

He says pre-tax margins of 5% are achievable for Keltbray and adds that a back-to-basics initiative he has begun at the firm – which focuses on client delivery, cost control and a right-first-time message – will help to deliver that.

He has already seen some differences between the building and civils sectors in terms of procurement. “With building [contracts] they are generally quicker to market and have a quicker turnaround. I’ve bid some jobs [at Ferrovial] where it was in tender stage for four years.

“There is more lump sum in building and contract terms are more onerous. You’ve got to be really on your game in terms of what you’re doing.”

And he adds: “There’s a real emphasis on long-term relationships [in building]. You pick up a phone and try and resolve a difference.” With the public sector and regulated industries, he says, the emphasis is on doing things by the book. “I’m very much from a procedural background,” he admits.

Keltbray has around 730 staff across the business and Goose is proud of the fact that around 10% of that number is made up of graduates and apprentices.

It recently moved 100 staff into its main base at 80 The Strand, just around the corner from Charing Cross station, after years out at Esher in the shadow of Sandown racecourse. Keltbray has kept a back office at the Surrey town but moving into London, with its transport links, made sense. “You need to attract talent,” Goose says. 

Given Keltbray’s owner and founder has an office a few yards away, does he worry that he won’t be allowed to get on and be a chief executive? “Brendan’s allowing me to run the business, as opposed to micro-managing. We had enough discussions beforehand that I was reasonably confident not to worry.

“We have a formal sit-down every month, and we talk all the time. Right now, my mind is trying to absorb everything.”