Sustainable improvement underpins strong 2021 results for BAM’s UK operations
BAM’s civil and construction businesses in the UK – BAM Nuttall and BAM Construct UK – have reported a strong performance for 2021.
Both businesses are now submitting financial accounts to Companies House. From January this year, the two companies became part of a single division, together with BAM Contractors in Ireland, known as BAM UK and Ireland.
BAM Construct UK increased turnover by 16%, whilst increasing profit before tax by almost 50% and seeing its order book grow by 22%.
James Wimpenny, executive director, BAM Construction said: “BAM Construct UK maintained its strategy of forming long-term strategic alliances with clients who share our values of collaboration and who are interested in leveraging the benefits of digital construction, and new methods such as off-site fabrication and sustainability.
“We won £1.1 billion of new work in 2021, and we aim to maintain a balanced portfolio, across both the public and private sector, as well market sectors such as commercial, education and health.”
Key projects for the construction side of the business include completing Meta’s new London offices at 11-21 Canal Reach Kings Cross (London), 103 Colmore Row (Birmingham), Sir William Henry Bragg Building (Leeds), and Atlantic Square (Glasgow).
It secured the Co-op Live Arena (Manchester), EQ Building (Bristol), Southam College (Warwickshire), Perth City Hall (Perth), and Strawberry Lane (Newcastle).
BAM Nuttall achieved a 27% increase in turnover to top one billion pounds for the first time, and more than doubled its profit before tax. The business’s margin rose from 1.4% to 2.4%.
Ian Parish, executive director, BAM Nuttall said: “BAM Nuttall’s collaborative culture and strong industry relationships have helped increase resilience throughout 2021. We delivered operations profitably, sustainably and predictably, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have continued our success for winning future work, closing the year with a £3.4 billion order book. Our results demonstrate a prudent growth strategy, securing sustainable revenue through selective tendering with our strategic clients.”
During the year, BAM Nuttall continued to focus on its core contracts, delivering major nationwide programmes of work for Network Rail, the Environment Agency, National Highways and SSE among others. It continued its work at the Rothera Research Station for British Antarctic Survey and continued to play a key role as contributing contractor within major schemes such as the TransPennine Route Upgrade and HS2.
John Wilkinson, chief operating officer for BAM UK and Ireland, said: “2021 was the first year of Royal BAM Group’s three-year strategic plan to create a more predictable, profitable and sustainable company, and to build a more sustainable tomorrow.
“BAM in the UK had a positive year in both construction and civil engineering. We improved our financial performance, grew our order book and have provided an excellent platform for future growth in our structure and operations. We achieved this despite the well-known international economic challenges.”
“The UK government has committed to increase public investment significantly over the next four years, resulting in a positive outlook for health, justice and education. The government is encouraging modern industrialised construction with Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) techniques.”
BAM said it will continue to leverage internal opportunities, building on the success of its construction and civils businesses and growing its successful ventures such as its design, plant, property and facilities management businesses.
John Wilkinson said the results pave the way for further success.
He added: “BAM is innovative, collaborative, and market leaders in digital and sustainable approaches. These very encouraging results show that BAM is on the right track to make continued growth and improved profitability while retaining our market leading position.”