New boss gets tonic as Kier order book grows £600m in four months

Kier’s order book has grown £600m in its new financial year, the firm said in its first financial update since former chief executive Andrew Davies stepped down at the end of last month.

In a trading statement this morning, ahead of its AGM, the contractor said its order book since 1 July now stood at £11.6bn thanks to several infrastructure wins along with new schools and prisons work while its property arm had secured planning for a logistics scheme at Andover in Hampshire called Logistics City.

Kier added that 94% of its revenue for the current trading year had already been secured.

>> See also: ‘I’ll miss it but it’s time for someone else to have a go.’ Andrew Davies gets ready to leave Kier

New chief executive Stuart Togwell, who joined Kier in 2019 and started his new role at the beginning of this month, said: “The current financial year has started well and we are trading in line with our expectations. I am excited to be beginning my tenure as chief executive and now look forward to working with our exceptional people to drive growth and value for our customers.”

Kier is due to put out another trading update in January ahead of its interim results on 3 March.