- Alfred McAlpine
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Alfred McAlpine 
Former type Public Industry Construction
Business servicesFate Acquired Successor Carillion Founded 1935[1] Defunct 2008 Headquarters London, UK Key people Dr Roger Urwin, (Chairman)
Ian Grice, (CEO)Employees 8,600 Alfred McAlpine plc was a British construction firm headquartered in London. 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 but was acquired by Carillion in 2008.
Contents
History
Alfred McAlpine was one of the sons of 'Concrete' Bob McAlpine and he ran the operations of Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd 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]
McAlpine floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1958 under the name Marchwiel Holdings, only changing its public name to Alfred McAlpine PLC 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 Penrhyn Quarry, the country's largest slate works. As the civil engineering market declined in the 1970s, McAlpine sought to diversify further into private housebuilding. Acquisitions included Price Brothers in 1978; Frank Sanderson's Finlas in 1982; and Canberra in 1988. Investments had also been made in the US housing industry. By the end of the 1980s, private housebuilding was contributing the major part of group profits.[4]
Leadership of the Company passed from Alfred to his son Jimmie and then in turn to his son Bobby. In 1990, 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.[5] In 2001, it acquired Kennedy Utility Management for £52m.[6] In 2002, it acquired Stiell, a facilities management and information technology network systems business, for £85m.[7] In February 2008, Carillion acquired Alfred McAlpine for £572m.[8]
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 Dinorwig Power Station completed in 1984,[9] Manchester Central completed in 1986,[10] Devonshire Dock Hall in Barrow-in-Furness completed in 1986,[11] the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds completed in 1996[12], the Galpharm Stadium in Huddersfield, opened in 1994, completed in 1997 (and known as the McAlpine Stadium until 2004)[13], the JJB Stadium in Wigan completed in 1999[14], the Eden Project in St Austell completed in 2001[15] and the M6 Toll completed in 2003.[16]
References
- ^ a b ""McAlpine vs McAlpine" High Court Judgement". Her Majesty's Courts Service. 2004-03-31. Archived from the original on May 17, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060517213441/http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/judgmentsfiles/j2440/mcalpine-v-mcalpine.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-11.
- ^ Gray, Tony pp23-5
- ^ Gray, Tony pp 68-9
- ^ a b Wellings, Fred: Dictionary of British Housebuilders (2006) Troubador. ISBN 978-0-9552965-0-5,
- ^ "Wimpey buys McAlpine building unit". BBC News. 2001-08-14. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1489982.stm. Retrieved 2008-07-11.
- ^ "Alfred McAlpine". UK Business Park. 2001-03-21. http://www.ukbusinesspark.co.uk/ale55454.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-11. "Alfred McAlpine has acquired Kennedy, the Manchester-based construction services group, for £52m."
- ^ "Alfred McAlpine". UK Business Park. 2002-03-04. http://www.ukbusinesspark.co.uk/ale55454.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-11. "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. 2007-12-10. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7135893.stm. Retrieved 2008-07-11.
- ^ Gray, Tony page 14
- ^ Gray, Tony page 137
- ^ Gray, Tony page 174
- ^ "The Re-negotiation of the PFI-type deal for the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds". National Audit Office. 2001-01-18. pp. 17. http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/nao_reports/00-01/0001103.pdf. Retrieved 2008-07-11.
- ^ Galpharm Stadium at Engineering Timelines
- ^ "Facts and Figures". The JJB Stadium. Archived from the original on March 28, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080328153132/http://www.jjbstadium.co.uk/facts/. Retrieved 2008-07-11.
- ^ Eden Project
- ^ "M6 Toll (formerly Birmingham Northern Relief Road)". The Motorway Archive. http://www.iht.org/motorway/m6toll.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-11.
Further reading
- Gray, Tony (1987). The Road to Success: Alfred McAlpine 1935 - 1985. Rainbird Publishing.
External links
Categories:- Companies established in 1935
- Construction and civil engineering companies of the United Kingdom
- Construction companies based in London
- Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange
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