Construction Giant Outlines Plans to Conquer Facilities Management Sector

One of the UK’s leading construction companies has outlined its plans to boost its front-end operations by capturing a greater share of the facilities management sector. Kier, the construction giants, posted pre-tax profits of £29.6m in the six months to December 31 and have aggressive plans to add facilities management jobs to their workforce.

Keir looking at expanding facilities management jobs

The facilities management sector is worth an estimated £35 billion and the Financial Times reports that Keir is looking at ‘a range of “bolt-on” acquisition targets’.

Paul Sheffield, chief executive of Keir, said: We’ve currently got about half a per cent of this very big market and we know there is more we could do in it.”

The FT reports that ‘a mix of private and public sector frameworks accounted for 80 per cent of its sales, compared with 70 per a year earlier, and are helping to offset the decline in the more volatile areas of the construction industry.’

Keir sales and profits up thanks partly to education success

By adding facilities management to its offering, Keir is hoping to both grab a greater share of this sector and to create new facilities management jobs.

One area where Kier has prospered has been in the education sector and Mr Sheffield said he was in discussions with the government about ways to cut by a quarter the cost of building new schools.

For the six months to December 31, Kier posted pre-tax profits of £29.6m, compared with £30.5m for the same period a year ago. The company’s sales were up from £1 billion to £1.1 billion.