A dazzling set of financial results accompanied by some of the finest examples of best practice meant Midas was first in line for this award, sponsored by Kingspan
Winner
Midas
No pun intended, but Midas is the golden boy of UK contracting. The firm's spectacular financial success continues. Operating profit has grown threefold over the past three years, and the turnover per employee has doubled. In a somewhat choppy market, that is really something. This is partly because it gets the most important thing right – that is, delivering a building of the required quality on time and within budget. And it is partly because it has taken the Egan message of supply-chain integration seriously: this firm has taken the concept of working in collaboration and applied it at every level of its business to benefit customers, workforce and partners. Midas now has about £100m of business in the form of long-term framework agreements over the next five years, so it is a safe bet that the company's performance is going to continue to get even better.

'I have found Midas to be a team who embrace the client's requirements'

RUNNERS-UP
Thomas Vale Construction
If you had to predict one thing about the Building Awards in 2005, it would be that Thomas Vale would be in the top three in this category. It is scrupulous about its treatment of clients, conscientious about the environmental impact of its actions and intelligent in its adoption of new procurement methods such as prime contracting. So it's heartening to report that virtue is not entirely its own reward: the company's profit grew by more than one-third last year. The key to this success, of course, is effective management, and the reason why that management is effective is it spends time and money training its staff, from the board to the men in boots: all staff hold bone fide CSCS cards, all receive customer care training and all receive communication skills training.

'Consistently our top performing contractor'

Dean & Dyball
If you can create an esprit de corps within a team, then that is a demonstration of good faith and inspired leadership, and it is comparatively easy compared with the job of getting different teams to work together as one. A notable aspect of Dean & Dyball's continuing success in business is that is has managed to choreograph the different bits of the company. A good example of this is the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's headquarters in Poole, Dorset. The company's marine division completed the sea wall ahead of time, allowing the civil engineering team to progress the groundworks and piling efficiently, which in turn allowed the building section to push forward to complete the project ahead of the scheduled completion date. Perfect.

'Dean & Dyball really have been virtually faultless in the 25 years that I have known them'

Longcross Group
In six years, Longcross has developed from a building services company with a turnover of £6m and a retail client base to a turn-key building company with a projected turnover of £100m in 2004 and a diverse client base. The firm has achieved this using the enlightened strategy of entering into framework agreements: it has long-term deals with Tesco, Sainsbury's, Somerfield, BA and the Department for Work and Pensions. It is also involved in the final stages of a four-year framework agreement with Imperial College, London. These kinds of deals sound rather cosy, but really it's tough to make them work. You have to innovate to deliver continuous improvements (such as cost savings of 15% on Sainsbury's Local stores). This is the kind of company clients want to marry.

'Responds well to change, good level of support from management, excellent innovation skills'

Pearce
In the year that Pearce completed its buyout from Crest Nicholson, it celebrated by becoming the only UK contractor to sign formal framework alliances across five of the top seven UK food retailers: Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Somerfield and Waitrose. And in the seven years since the formation of Pearce Retail and Leisure, the firm has not lost a single framework client, despite numerous reviews. It has also improved its market share for each of those years, particularly in the retail and leisure sectors. Naturally, there is a secret to this, and it's something of an open one: investment in staff. Pearce Group commits a sum of money to training and development that is equal to 3.4% of an employee's salary, as against the industry average of 2.2%.

'Pearce set a lead for our other partners'

Building awards 2004