Keller jobs in Middle East stopped as war goes on

Keller has said several of its jobs in the Middle East have been paused because of the ongoing conflict between Iran and the US and Israel.

The ground engineer has around 500 people working in the region across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain.

Chief executive James Wroath, who took over from Michale Speakman last year, said its work in Saudi was still continuing but jobs elsewhere had been stopped because of the war.

Around 300 people are affected he said, adding that those who can were continuing to work from home. “It’s almost back to covid conditions,” he added.

The region accounts for around 5%, or £150m, of Keller’s global business and Wroath said: “We’re waiting and seeing. We’re hoping the political and military situation clams down and allows us to get back to work. Clearly, everybody wants a more stable world.”

Its Saudi jobs include a ski slope at Trojene which Wroath said it was close to completing.

But he said its work in Saudi was scaling back. “Some of the more ambitious projects are being reined back in and some of the procurement has been widened meaning there are less opportunities for us than we’d hoped for.”

He said margins in Saudi were being squeezed and added: “We work in collaboration with clients and we earn good margins as a result. Margin discipline is important and there are enough jobs in the world for people to pay Keller the right price.”

Despite being listed in London, Wroath said Keller’s UK business not a major part of the group. “It’s just not top of the list for investment and excitement to be honest.”

He said demand in the UK across the ground engineering sector was “not thriving” whilst “there was a lot of supply post-HS2”.

Keller’s work on the railway has finished and its current UK jobs include work on a new stadium for Luton Town. But Wroath added margins in the UK were below what it wanted: “There is incredibly competitive pricing in the market.”

Its biggest market is North America where it is working on the i40 road repair scheme in Tennessee and a series of residential jobs in Miami.

Revenue in the region was up 5% to £1.8bn but underlying operating profit was down 10% to £166m because of a wider slowdown in residential work.

Keller’s group revenue last year was up 3% to £3bn with pre-tax profit up 1.4% to £186.4m. Its order book at the end of 2025 was £1.5bn./p>