Month in numbers

73

The number of corpses retrieved from a nine-storey garment factory that collapsed near Dhaka, Bangladesh, before officials called off the search last month. Some relatives claim their loved ones are still missing.

Poor construction is blamed for the tragedy. “Inspection of the site confirmed the building was erected on a faulty design, with cheap construction materials and without a solid foundation,” engineer Aktar-uz-Zaman told Reuters News Agency. It was built on reclaimed marshland.

Bangladesh’s housing minister, Mirza Abbas, claimed that the building was built without planning permission, an accusation the factory management denies. Eyewitness reports suggested that the building started to shake violently before collapsing.

1346

The length, in words, of a vitriolic condemnation of Mowlem published by Bath and North East Somerset council on its website over the Bath Spa project. Plagued by mishaps, the project is 30 months late. Last month the council sacked Mowlem and hired Capita Symonds to finish the spa. “I see this as the end of a nightmare and the start of a new beginning,” said councillor Nicole O’Flaherty.

The council says the final straw came last month after Mowlem refused to confirm it would comply with an Architect’s Instruction to replace a floor in a steam room that had been taken up to discover why it was leaking. Mowlem says the Council is in breach of its contract and considering legal action.

80,000

The amount in pounds that small and medium contractors spend before winning a bid, according to research by the University of Reading and consultant Marketing Works. Bigger contractors spend £115,000 per successful bid.

How do they know? It’s all down to the maths, and this is how they worked it out: they reckon smaller contractors spend an average of 100 hours and £10,000 on each bid.

Then they reckon the average win rates are 1:8, so the cost to win a bid is £80,000. Bigger contractors spend 547 hours and £23,000 on each bid, and, with a win rate of 1:5, well, you can do the rest. The research found that proper bid management was key to winning work.

Not surprisingly, Marketing Works now offer a course on it.

16.6m

The amount in pounds lost by Gleeson’s building division in the second half of 2004, prompting the contractor to offload the division in a management buyout.

Chairman Dermot Gleeson said the sale would reduce the group’s exposure to construction risk, and the firm’s share price rose accordingly.

Despite the extended boom in UK construction, the Risky Reaper still roams the land. In March this year two other listed contractors, Mowlem and Alfred McAlpine announced losses from problematic contracts.

Meanwhile, others are getting wiser. Last month Multiplex pulled out of a £175m gig in Barnsley because the design didn’t make it through Multiplex’s risk-return analysis.

700m

The fortune, in pounds, of JCB chairman Sir Anthony Bamford. This nice little nest egg puts him at 65th place in the 2005 Sunday Times Rich List, and probably makes him the richest man in construction.

But before you conclude that contracting is a mug’s game, consider that he has fallen from 46th place in 2004 and 31st the year before, and that he may pass someone else on the way up – Ray O’Rourke (155th) who’s haul is estimated at £320m, a rise of £115m since 2004.

Coming in jointly at 349th place were Sir Martin Laing, former Laing Chairman, and the family of Sir Christopher Wates, former CEO of Wates Construction. Richard Willmott of Willmott Dixon was ranked at 458th with a family fortune of £100m.