Restructure at Rok

Contractor Rok has overhauled its London management team as part of a restructure of its Southeast operation. London boss Clive Percival has been replaced as London regional director by Kevin Brush, who joined in spring from Verry Construction. Sources said he left by mutual consent. A further four members of the eight-strong London management team are understood to have been made redundant or to be in the process of negotiating a settlement.

John Samuel, the firm’s operations director, is understood to have disagreed with Percival. Both Samuel and Percival joined a year ago, from Balfour Beatty and Mansell respectively.

Rok said in a statement to QS News: “A number of changes are being made to some of our businesses to bring them into line with the successful Rok model... Previously, the businesses in London and the Southeast relied too heavily on large construction contracts, often some distance from their bases. This is no longer the model for a sustainable Rok Business. As a result, it has been decided to concentrate on growing the general building and maintenance services in London and move away from the larger projects.”

It confirmed that as a result “four or five” jobs would be lost and added: “The consultation period has begun and we will be endeavouring to find alternative roles for anyone affected by the changes.”

Percival was brought in with a team of seven to the London office a year ago. The source claimed the London business lost £500,000 during the past two years although it was due to break even this year. The problems of the past two years followed Rok’s acquisition of Llewellyn in September 2002 for £16.25m.

A senior source close to Rok said: “When Rok bought Llewellyn there were problems: Llewellyn was a traditional family-style business while Rok was all bright lights, big colours etc. The net result was that lots of people (from Llewellyn) left and two years of bad results caused by Rok’s investment into a family whose management style was diametrically opposed to its own.”

The source claimed that the London team was brought in to stabilise the situation, which it did. “It was working well. It was never going to make a profit this year but it was due to break even after £500,000 of losses from the previous two years.”

The London management team consists of: Japser Ackerman, David Cook, Matt Dauncey, Kevin Flavin, Steve Hurd, Phil Simms, Clive Percival and Stuart Trott.

It is understood that each team member will either leave Rok or be moved away from London. Both Percival and Ackerman have already left the firm. Flavin has been moved to Crawley and Trott will remain in Heathrow rather than central London. Rok employs around 100 people in London at less senior levels and nationally it employs over 300 quantity surveyors.

Brush combines the new role with his pre-existing responsibility for the Reading and Oxford operations.

Rok reported pre-tax profit of £16m on revenue of £555.8m for the year to December 2005. The firm said profit for the first six months of 2006 was up 12%.

Last month Rok bought Tulloch Construction, based in Inverness, for £31m.

Tulloch Construction’s results for the12 months to 31 December 2005 show turnover of £110m with operating profit of £3.3m.

Full statement
Rok’s full statement said: “Rok has a clear strategy of becoming The Nation’s Local Builder™ operating via a UK wide network of offices that are really locally focused. Previously, the businesses in London and the South East relied too heavily on large construction contracts, often some distance from their bases. This is no longer the model for a sustainable Rok Business. As a result, it has been decided to concentrate on growing the general building and maintenance services in London and move away from the larger projects. The focus will continue to remain on sectors where Rok has market-leading expertise such as social housing and insurance work.

This change of emphasis away from traditional contracting is likely to mean the loss of around four or five jobs and lead to some senior managers leaving the business. The consultation period has begun and we will be endeavouring to find alternative roles for anyone affected by the changes. These proposed changes bring London into line with the strategy across the whole of Rok plc and will prepare the business for its part in the next phase of Rok’s growth, which is expected to see the total number of employees exceed 10,000 in the next five years.”