Last updated 10 January 2023
Barhale Holdings Plc
Barhale is a privately-owned infrastructure and civil engineering groups with a turnover of around £110 million a year and a workforce of more than 700 people.
Financials
Turnover at Barhale Holdings Plc in the 12 months to June 2022 slipped back to £109.0 million (2021: £110.3 million) but profits grew at a far stronger rate. At an operating level, profits more than doubled to £3.6 million (2020: £1.3 million) and before tax, profits grew to £3.2 million (2021: £1.3 million).
To view the financials for Barhale plc, visit Companies House and use Company ID 10829369.
Operations
Based in Walsall in the West Midlands, the group has diversified beyond its roots in tunnelling and water and today focuses on the water & utilities, transport & public realm and energy & waste sectors. It mainly provides integrated solutions to regulated, blue chip customers based on its core capabilities of tunnelling, utilities, mechanical & electrical and civil engineering.
Barhale works as a tier 1 partner to many clients, often in integrated teams and 70% of its turnover is in long-term frameworks and half in joint ventures with long-term industry partners. In 2013, a new venture – BarhaleResponse – was formed with an Irish group, Response, to provide a combined end-to-end DBO Civil/MEICA service. In early 2014, Response founder Noel Hanley joined the Barhale board and took on the role of business operations director to lead the group’s management team through what the company describes as a ‘necessary period of change and renewal.’
Barhale is an accredited multi-utility provider, for gas and electricity network clients as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for the management and installation of multi-utilities to private developers.
Water & Utilities
Barhale ranks as one of the top ten water-related contractors with major frameworks, as well as one-off projects and a high level of repeat business for most water utilities, including Anglian Water, Affinity Water, Portsmouth Water, Severn Trent Water, Thames Water, and Yorkshire Water.
Barhale is on number of long-term frameworks for water utilities to support investment in the AMP7 capital spending round, which began in 2021 and runs for the next five years. These include Thames Water’s £4 billion Capital Projects Framework contract for AMP 7&8 (Project ID: 19219218), a £2.3 million AMP7 Water & Waste Framework for Severn Trent (Project ID: 17318750) and Yorkshire Water’s £1 billion AMP7 framework (Project ID: 17135261).
Transport & Public Realm
Through its regional offices, Barhale works across the rail, highways, airports, public realm and waterways sectors for a range of clients including Network Rail. The group has wide experience in building and maintaining airport infrastructure ranging from runway upgrades to terminal expansion and refit. Barhale is working with Bouygues on the £70 million extension of the Midland Metro project known as Birmingham Eastside (Project ID: 20087036). The company is also on frameworks for Gatwick Airport, Crossrail and Manchester Airport Group’s £700 million major capital works framework (Project ID: 19074348).
Energy & Waste
Barhale operates across the energy sector working on power generation, transmission and distribution, applying skills across its various disciplines. Barhale’s northern business unit was appointed to a framework agreement with Western Power Distribution for its West and East Midlands businesses, providing building and civils services for sub-stations (Project ID: 16182286). Other clients include National Grid and North London Waste Authority.
In the waste sector, the company provides services for local authority and commercial waste management customers, working on resources recovery facilities, energy-from-waste facilities and household waste recycling centres, often providing a ”total solution”. Projects include a new household waste recycling centre on the site of a former HGV depot in Knowsley, Merseyside.
Glenigan Data
In the 2022 calendar, Barhale’s order book fell to £81.1 million (2021: £117.7 million) and the group slid down Glenigan’s annual ranking of the industry’s top 100 contractors to 97th position (2021: 63rd).
Conclusion: Coping with delays
Revenue was sluggish in the latest trading year as work from long term frameworks proved slow to come on stream. This was mainly through a fall in the group’s plant hire operations, where turnover dropped back to £6.7 million (2021: £9.6 million) with revenue form the core contracting operations firming to £102.1 million (2021: £100.6 million).
Glenigan’s research shows that the order book slipped back last year but remains above 2020 levels and the group has just about retained its place in Glenigan’s ranking of the industry’s Top 100 contractors.
However, profitability has improved considerably after a period of trading in the red. In the first six months of 2020, Barhale posted a loss of £16 million after problems on three loss-making projects including the Elan Valley Aqueduct scheme for Severn Trent Water. The COVID-19 pandemic then struck but the group returned to the black in 2021 and has stayed there in part due to cost cutting.
The workforce was cut by 5% in 2021 and the group has avoided recruitment with workload stalling. In the latest year average number of employees was slipped to 768 people (2021: 772 people). The wage bill still rose to £40.2 million (2021: £38.3 million) and this has put pressure on resources. Cash and cash equivalents have shrunk to £3.0 million (2021: £4.3 million). Barhale has an asset based lending facility of £11.1 million and at June 022 had used £6.8 million of this facility.
With work from frameworks delayed, the group sought opportunities outside these arrangements, which offers more risk. Barhale has worked on major projects such as the Midlands Metro extension in Birmingham as part of a consortium to reduce the risk profile. On other major projects, such as Thames Water’s £604 million Super Sewer scheme (Project ID: 14018427), the group works as a subcontractor.
So far, seeking work outside frameworks does not appear to have increased the risk profile and the value of the average award reduced for a second year in a row to £16.2 million (2021: £22.3 million).
The current depressed situation looks to be temporary and the final 2-3 years of the AMP7 spending programmes will still need to be fulfilled, which will keep Barhale busy and boost trading in the near term.
Winning work with Barhale
In recent years, Barhale has increasingly focused on a sustainable business strategy highlighting three key areas: profit, safety and environment, which are seen as critical to its success. The company has developed performance management key indicators around this approach, which it sees as its “Three Pillars – underpinned by our People’.
The group is registered with a large number of agencies from CHAS to Constructionline. A full range of Barhale’s accreditations can be seen here. Businesses interested in working with the group are advised to telephone the group’s head office on 0844 7360050 or send details to: info@barhale.co.uk.
Key Procurement Contacts for Barhale
Procurement Coordinator – Sarah Leabon, tel 0844 7360050
Senior buyer – John Lea, tel 0844 7360050