Keltbray spreads risk as spending spree climbs to £10m

The deal is understood to take its recent acquisition spree to £10m, which aims to diversify the company away from its flagging core commercial market. Cain White will trade under the name Keltbray Piling.

It follows the purchase of rail track-replacement specialist Gamble Rail out of administration last week, and comes as it announced its intention to win a share of forthcoming contracts to decommission nuclear power stations.

The spending spree began with £20m-turnover asbestos removal specialist Pectel last December.

Brendan Kerr, group managing director, said the deals would boost turnover to £150m in 2011. “We’ve obviously been concerned at our exposure to the commercial market. In 2007 we decided to extend our services to cover the waste management and recycling, transport and energy markets. These acquisitions firmly position us in those markets.”

Keltbray has grown in recent years on the back of high-profile demolition jobs such as the Shard of Glass and the Pinnacle in London but has had to diversify its model as the commercial market dries up. Without the deals, Kerr said turnover would have fallen from £129m to between £90m and £95m this year.