Brands may go in Balfour shake-up

Balfour Beatty’s restructure of its UK construction services division will focus on reshaping the firm around three work streams, in a move that could spell the end for existing brands such as Mansell.

Building understands that the firm is focusing on restructuring the £3.4bn turnover UK construction services arm around “three main pillars” of business: regional building and civils; regional M&E; and major infrastructure. As first revealed by Building, the consultation was launched last month with all 12,000 of the contractor’s UK construction services employees.

The firm’s UK construction services arm includes contractor Mansell, Balfour Beatty Construction, Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering and Balfour Beatty Engineering Services.

A spokesperson for the firm confirmed the restructure was focused on the three work streams, but would not say if existing brands, such as Mansell, would be dropped.

She said the first phase of the consultation was about receiving feedback from staff, which would conclude at the end of April, with a decision to follow on whether to proceed with the restructure.

Tony Williams, Building Value chief executive, said the shape of the restructure made it more likely that the existing brands would disappear.

“They could accommodate all the different names, but if they’re grouping the businesses in that way my gut instinct is some of the names will go as part of a clean up,” he said.

The firm has warned that if the restructure proceeds, jobs will be lost, although these are unlikely to be operational staff.

Of the 12,000 employees in its construction services division, around two-thirds are operational staff, leaving about 4,000 at risk.

Building understands that as many as 1,500 of these jobs could go, with the restructure part of a wider drive to realise £50m of savings a year by 2015.