Alfred McAlpine
CEO ) | |
Number of employees | 8,600 (2008) |
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Alfred McAlpine plc was a British construction firm headquartered in Hooton, Cheshire. It was a major road builder, and constructed over 10% of Britain's motorways, including the M6 Toll (as part of the CAMBBA consortium). It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Carillion in 2008.
History
Alfred McAlpine was one of the sons of 'Concrete' Bob McAlpine and he ran the operations of Sir Robert McAlpine in the north west of England. In 1935, following the death of Sir Robert and his eldest son, Alfred ran the north west independently, although the legal separation was not completed until 1940, when Sir Alfred McAlpine & Son was formed. Under a non-compete agreement with its former parent company, Sir Alfred McAlpine confined itself to civil engineering and to the north west of England.[2]
After the death of its founder, his son Jimmie McAlpine became chairman. The company was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1958 under the name Marchwiel Holdings, changing its public name to Alfred McAlpine PLC only in 1985.[3] This followed the decision in 1983 to end the non-compete agreement with Robert McAlpine allowing the firm to expand geographically.[1]
McAlpine's status as a civil engineer was enhanced during the 1960s by its participation in the motorway building programme and the company became one of the country's leading civil engineers. There had been some limited diversification, including the purchase of
In 1985, Jimmie retired, and handed over chairmanship of the company to his son Robert James "Bobby" McAlpine.[5] In 1991 Bobby brought in an outside chief executive, resigning as chairman in 1992, by which time the family no longer owned a controlling shareholding. Under new management, there was further concentration on private housebuilding, including the acquisition of Raine Industries. By the late 1990s, McAlpine was building over 4,000 houses a year and was one of the industry's top ten.[4] However, there was increasing speculation over the future of the company and, in 2001, it sold its housebuilding operations to George Wimpey.[6] In 2001, it acquired Kennedy Utility Management for £52m.[7] In 2002, it acquired Stiell, a facilities management and information technology network systems business, for £85m.[8] In February 2008, Carillion acquired Alfred McAlpine for £572m.[9]
Structure
It had three business streams:
- Business Services: facilities management, information systems, asset management and health and safety management.
- Project Services: the Special Projects unit was involved a broad range of commercial, industrial, leisure, educational and medical facilities and the civil engineering unit was focused primarily on road building.
- Infrastructure Services: maintenance, renewal and development services to utility operators in the gas, electricity, water and telecoms sectors and roads maintenance services to local government.
It also owned Alfred McAlpine Slate, which was the world's largest producer of natural slate.
Major projects
Projects undertaken by the company included an engine factory for the
References
- ^ a b ""McAlpine vs McAlpine" High Court Judgement". Her Majesty's Courts Service. 31 March 2004. Archived from the original on 17 May 2006. Retrieved 11 July 2008.
- ^ Gray, pp. 23-5
- ^ Gray, pp. 68-9
- ^ ISBN 978-0-9552965-0-5,
- ^ "Sir Alfred McAlpine and Son". Graces Guide. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
- ^ "Wimpey buys McAlpine building unit". BBC News. 14 August 2001. Retrieved 11 July 2008.
- ^ "Alfred McAlpine". UK Business Park. 21 March 2001. Archived from the original on 2 October 2008. Retrieved 11 July 2008.
Alfred McAlpine has acquired Kennedy, the Manchester-based construction services group, for £52m.
- ^ "Alfred McAlpine". UK Business Park. 4 March 2002. Archived from the original on 2 October 2008. Retrieved 11 July 2008.
Alfred McAlpine has acquired Stiell, the facilities management company with 1,200 staff at offices in Glasgow, Manchester, London and Belfast, for £85m.
- ^ "Carillion agrees to buy McAlpine". BBC News. 10 December 2007. Retrieved 11 July 2008.
- ^ Gray, p. 35
- ^ Gray, p. 107
- ^ Gray, p. 79
- ^ Gray, p. 184
- ^ Gray, p. 188
- ^ Gray, p. 14
- ^ Gray, p. 137
- ^ Gray, p. 174
- ^ Jackfield Bridge Tata Steel
- ^ "The Re-negotiation of the PFI-type deal for the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds" (PDF). National Audit Office. 18 January 2001. p. 17. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 October 2008. Retrieved 11 July 2008.
- ^ Galpharm Stadium at Engineering Timelines Archived 10 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Facts and Figures". The JJB Stadium. Archived from the original on 28 March 2008. Retrieved 11 July 2008.
- ^ "Welcome to Living Space – Housing Regeneration". living-places.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
- ^ "£113M Wythenshawe Hospital development". New Civil Engineer. 20 August 1998. Archived from the original on 8 April 2018. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
- ^ "Hereford PFI deal closed". Building. 23 April 1999. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
- ^ "M6 Toll (formerly Birmingham Northern Relief Road)". The Motorway Archive. Archived from the original on 8 August 2008. Retrieved 11 July 2008.
- ^ "HICL announces additional investments in 4 existing projects". InfraRed. 6 August 2012. Archived from the original on 2 April 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
- ^ "Clinical and research centre reaches milestone". University of Cambridge. 7 November 2005. Retrieved 8 February 2018.
- ^ "The lessons of Bluestone" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
Sources
- Gray, Tony (1987). The Road to Success: Alfred McAlpine 1935–1985. Rainbird Publishing.