Stanhope director Peter Rogers’ reaction was typical of senior industry figures. “Wow. It’s a great pity,” he said. He said that Stanhope had not worked with Laing Management recently because “it got dragged into the construction division”. He added that Stanhope would now take a fresh look at Laing Management.
John Lewis building and services deputy director Nigel Keen, who has worked closely with Laing recently, said he had no idea the move was afoot. He added: “We need to understand how Laing will manage jobs from a centralised office.”
Davis Langdon & Everest senior partner Paul Morrell said that the move was understandable. “Laing probably makes 80% of its profit from 20% of its work, so it is right to move away from lower profit jobs.”
Morrell had one word of warning: “Competitive tendering does keep you sharp, looking for innovations. There is a danger it could lose this.”
Gleeds senior partner Richard Steer said that the writing was on the wall. “Laing has been returning untouched tender documents to us for a few weeks now.” He added: “I suppose this makes it vulnerable to a takeover by one of the big European contractors now.”
Gregory Craig, chairman of architect epr, which works regularly with Laing on Whitbread hotels, said: “I feel dismay. The industry is worse off without Laing bidding for contracts. I’ve always regarded Laing as the best contractor under JCT80 and pure design-and-build contracts.”
