And 63-year-old Bill is just the boy of the family. He reports to 81-year-old patriarch Malcolm H McAlpine. Belying "sophisticated Humphry Bogart" looks by dining on egg and chips with staff, Malcolm H is also the type to drive to work in a Mini.
So, what is McAlpine? The last of the great contractors, run and owned by a family of eccentric millionaires? Or, as some say, a claims-hungry wolf in sheep's clothing?
On the surface, it is fairly conventional: parent Newarthill made a respectable £7m before tax on £324m turnover in 1997. But the firm is a mystery to much of the industry. The family give no interviews, and at a time when most rivals are trying to drag themselves into the next millennium, McAlpine seems stuck in a 1950s timewarp – you won't find a McAlpine on the Egan soapbox, taking a place at the Reading Construction Forum or courting the City. This family operates in a different social and political league. A spread in Hello! or a Tory dinner party is its natural habitat.
One glance at the guest list for its last famous Park Lane Christmas party gives a strong hint as to the extent of the family's influence, at least in the 1980s. Invited were Dennis Thatcher, Lord (Tim) Bell, Lords Beaverbrook, Stevens and Parkinson; gilding was by the likes of Anton Mossiman. Clients turned out in force: executives from Land Securities, Hammerson and MEPC mingling with the UK's top architects and quantity surveyors. And once embraced, you are in for good – the same people, some now in their 90s, go every year.
This social standing is still reckoned to bring the family work. As one observer says: "The McAlpines don't need to social climb – they are society." An insider explains: "They are very available to their customers. They meet them in their social life as well as in their business life, at the Chelsea Flower Show, the opera." QSs are often given a job after being told McAlpine is the contractor.
Who's who in the McAlpine boardroom
The McAlpines don’t need to social climb – they are society
As the continuing senior figure, most curiosity surrounds the octogenarian Malcolm. Having taken over from his charismatic and higher-profile cousin Edwin, who died in 1990, he is criticised by some for lacking the PR skills to drive the firm forward; and by others who say it is time for him to retire. Nevertheless, he still seen as the driving force behind the business, doing deals, highly intelligent and "a man of stature". When the firm hit trouble in the early 1990s, his standing as a financially astute senior figure in the CBI helped to reassure the banks.
"He's a very shrewd businessman," says Sir Christopher Harding, head of the giant United Utilities and the outsider-chairman of Newarthill. "He wouldn't thank me for saying it, but despite his age, he's as bright as a button, in the office every day."
Harding is enlightening on how the board operates. "Malcolm's the most senior person," he says, "but decisions don't tend to go to votes at Newarthill, with him pulling his weight. You think of it as a failure if it gets to that." Another source is more blunt: "They never take votes – decisions are always a consensus. There's a limit to how much someone can argue with their great uncle."
There is speculation, though, that there was dissension within the family over one major issue. Malcolm, his son Cullum, Sir William, David and their cousin Ian speak for nearly all the shares. However, Newarthill was quoted for much of the 1980s, then bought back in 1990 at a far higher price than it was sold for. Understandably, some family members were annoyed.
These shareholders are board members of Newarthill and its subsidiary Sir Robert McAlpine. A few non-family members are also McAlpine directors. Sir William's brother and Building columnist Alistair McAlpine left the board in the early 1990s.
Each member of the family is different. Bill, who chairs board meetings at Sir Robert McAlpine itself, prides himself for having started on site and describes himself as "just a builder". He chided Harding at a function on the Queen's Barge for suggesting to former environment secretary John Gummer that Bankside Power station should be demolished. He had worked on it, after all. Former owner of the Flying Scotsman, Bill still enjoys trains. He hosts evenings travelling around London by rail – at £60 per person for champagne, a three-course dinner and wine. And at the regular lunches Bill hosts at the Inter-Continental Hotel, he can reel off the names unfalteringly of 20 or so guests just after meeting them.
They never take votes – decisions are always a consensus. There’s a limit to how much someone can argue with their great uncle
Insiders say that Cullum is "quite sharp, quite bright; quick on his feet". David is described as kind but "limp", Ian a quiet but committed contractor; Richard "withdrawn".
Each McAlpine covers a section of the country. Bill looks after Scotland, Cullum the South-west, Bill's son and long-term heir apparent Andrew the North-east, Malcolm's nephew Richard the North-west, David the South-east and Ian the Midlands. Malcolm's nephew James runs a small Newarthill helicopter spin-off and his son Adrian looks after McAlpine property interests. The patriarchal structure is illustrated by the absence of women in the family tree, who play little part in the business. One insider says: "It's quite normal for the family to run to daughters as well as sons. But they tend to be rather chauvinistic in terms of getting them involved."
The secret of its success
Industry sources say that one key to the McAlpines' endurance is the core of hard-bitten, long-serving contractors and project managers who keep things ticking over. Each area also has a regional manager. So, in London, the garrulous, horse racing and West Ham fan Benny Kelly forms a double-act with the soft-spoken Honourable David. Bill works with David Boyle and Richard with Paul Leggott. These well-paid men have a relatively free hand as long as they keep a tight control on turnover, hit specific targets and can be depended on to get on site and sort out hitches quickly.
One top QS says: "There's no point getting a McAlpine down to the site if there's a problem. It's Benny who's good at that. He'll try to take you to Wimbledon to sort something out, but he'll also be getting things done among the muck and bullets."
However, another observer points to the McAlpines' ability to get along with all types of people. "The family are like the Barings or Cazenoves always were – good at dealing with a bit of rough."
The McAlpines are quite unforgiving of treachery
Many admire the loyalty of key insiders such as director of operations Vince Christie and finance director Paddy Walker-Taylor, but you get the feeling it would be difficult for them to buy into another company – and, as one insider says: "The McAlpines are quite unforgiving of treachery." Equally unpopular are those that destroy company loyalty. Nigel Turnbull, an ex-finance director at developer Rosehaugh, became finance director of Newarthill for 15 months in the mid-1990s, but rocked the boat too much. "He thought he'd come in and throw his weight around, but they didn't want someone coming in and firing all the people who had worked there for 30 years," says one source.
McAlpine still has a unique way of building, and is revered in many circles as the last of the traditional contractors. Unlike many firms, it never split its civils, building and management contracting arms – leaving others such as Laing filled with envy they as undergo the trauma of remerging theirs. And the fact that the firm can still draw on a large, directly employed labour force of woodwork, plasterwork and timberwork specialists means that McAlpine's workmanship is rarely in doubt. On top of this, the 1960s "fastest frame-builders in the world" can still hold its own on structural work against fast-growing rivals such as O'Rourke.
But woe betide anyone who crosses the firm. One subcontractor got seven phone calls in 20 minutes from an irate McAlpine project director; clients, too, say they would prefer a more "considered" approach. And Sir Robert McAlpine is not averse to lodging claims. Some of its projects – a Mayfair office, the Jubilee Line Extension and the new British Library are giving QSs headaches. "They tend to have a fairly inventive view of what they are entitled to," says one.
The type of work undertaken is a mixture. Rivals are in awe of the scale of projects McAlpine takes on for a firm of its size – for example, the Millennium Dome and Richard Rogers' Lloyd's Registry of Shipping in the City. And being a private company helps it to move nimbly in taking stakes in large private finance initiative projects, unencumbered by scrutiny from the City –hence a stake in a new £600m Docklands Exhibition Centre.
McAlpine has also been through several phases in its 121-year existence. Having carried out giant steelworks and London office buildings after The Second World War, it was hit by the development crash in the 1990s. By this time, it had a foothold in the electronics market, and had the sector all but sewn up before the bottom fell out of the global semiconductor market – it pulled out of Hyundai's Scotland plant, which was subsequently cancelled last summer. More recently, there has been a shift back to commercial and PFI work, with one McAlpine general hospital on site in Scotland and smaller health projects in the South-west.
So, where next? There is no doubt that the McAlpines will continue with contracting. They are genuinely fond of their staff, and as one insider says: "To give up would be denying their ancestors." At a time when the future of reliable firms such as Laing, Tarmac and Bovis is uncertain, McAlpine's self-ownership means its own future is not in doubt.
The last word goes to Malcolm. After politely declining an interview, he told Building: "We think of ourselves as the best, and that is partly because internally there is a different culture in a family business. We don't have reinventions; we react flexibly to the market. Every company tries to make itself more efficient, and thank God we are all different. There are plenty of other pebbles on the beach for people to be interested in."
