Major contractor of the year: more than £200m turnover

Winner
Kier
It is tempting, if somewhat unfair, to see Kier's triumph in this category as a victory of the tortoise over the hare. It certainly does show that success is built on good foundations: hard work and making sure things are done right. Four of the group's businesses have Investor in People status and six are working towards it; customer satisfaction surveys are standardised across all arms of the business, independently analysed and benchmarked against key performance indicators; its supply chains consist of first-class specialists with whom it has partnering relationships. No wonder, then, that the average churn rate of staff is seven years, or that its Gallions Reach project in east London built a £24.7m retail park on poisoned ground and supplied it with water and transport infrastructure without a single reportable accident.

'Each project has been completed to our total satisfaction in respect of cost, quality and programme. An excellent contractor'

RUNNERS-UP
Sir Robert McAlpine
It is cliched to dwell on Sir Robert McAlpine's blue-blooded pedigree, so we'll start with the fact that 95% of contracts are won through negotiation rather than open market tender, and 75% of contracts are repeat work. Clearly, the experience of working with, and working for, this company is valued by clients and staff. The staff, no doubt, like the comprehensive programmes of training courses, the performance development reviews and the structured development programme, which ensures that they take on any project, no matter how complex. Clients no doubt appreciate the firm's commitment to whole-life costing and its dedication to sustainability – all the concrete and 12,000 tonnes of steelwork were recycled from Birmingham's former Bullring building.

'I was so impressed by the way the firm grasped our requirements'

Bovis Lend Lease
The first thing to say about Bovis Lend Lease is that it is one of the world's best construction companies. It is one of the world's top 10 contractors, operating in 40 countries with more than 7000 staff and a global turnover of £3.3bn.

Run your eye over the work on its books and you come across the £500m refurbishment of the BBC's headquarters, the £200m Telefonica business park in Madrid and the equally valuable Prague airport. This firm has become a benchmark company: it sets the standard by which other UK contractors can judge their performance. And at its high-profile Paternoster Square scheme in the City of London, the company's on-site nurse, walk-in surgery, high quality canteen, staff showers, negotiated subcontracts, real-time communications system and use of bar-coded materials created a tough act for the industry to follow.

'Would not hesitate to repeat business'

Wates
Seen as a commercial operation, Wates is a success, having doubled its profit over three years. Seen as a service for its clients, Wates is a success, having topped Building's client survey for quality and speed of communication, quality of administrative support, ability to manage subcontractors, ability to complete projects on time and its understanding of its customers' business priorities. And seen as an employer, it is a success, improving its safety performance and lowering its staff churn rate over the past three years. If all of that doesn't convince you that this is a thoroughbred outfit, consider the qualitative data: out the 61 projects that it completed last year, 98% finished on or ahead of time, 92% were on or done for less than budget.

Taylor Woodrow
The core engineering and construction skills of Taylor Woodrow are acknowledged and respected by friend and foe alike. Less well known is the firm's commitment to developing those skills through research and development into materials, construction techniques, whole-life costing and 3D project modelling. It has brought this accumulated expertise to bear on grand projects such as the refitting of the Royal Albert Hall, but also in lower profile jobs – the Palentine Road project in Didsbury being a fine example.

Interserve Project Services
The profit of this firm has doubled over the past three years, which funnily enough is when it underwent a sector change. As you may recall, Tilbury Douglas, a muddy-boots contractor, became a state-of-the-art PFI service provider and a framework contractor for the Department of Work and Pensions, the Royal Bank of Scotland, BT and the Prison Service, among others. This transformation has come about because the firm understood it takes brains to make money out of services. Interserve has developed Java-based management tools to record KPI data, and developed a process map for the NHS' Procure 21 system that has been adopted by the whole of the health service.