Last updated 12 January 2023
Buckingham Group
Buckingham Group is a Buckinghamshire-based privately owned building and civil engineering contractor that grew out of a plant hire operation founded in 1955. Incorporated as a company in 1987, the contracting operations work mainly on design and build contracts. The group is led by long-standing chairman and senior partner Paul Wheeler and turns over more than £600 million a year and employs more than 650 people.
Financials
In 2014 there was a 68% surge in turnover that continued into 2018, when turnover passed the half a billion mark for the first time only for 2019 to bring a fall but despite the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic a rebound emerged.
In 2020, turnover reached a record £665.3 million (2020: £584.5 million) but the group traded in the red. At an operating level, Buckingham lost £12.3 million (2020: £6.6 million profit) (2019: £9.2 million) and before tax, the deficit was £10.7 million (2020: £8.6 million profit).
To view the financials for Buckingham Group Contracting Ltd, visit Companies House and use Company ID 02181671.
Operations
Buckingham’s operations span demolition, land remediation, infrastructure, rail and building work in the commercial, industrial, retail and sports & leisure sectors. The group’s headquarters is in Buckingham and there are regional offices in Birmingham, Doncaster, London, Manchester and Theale.
The group specialises in the logistics and industrial sector and has a number of commercial developers as clients, such as Panattoni and Prologis, and also works direct for major retails such as Amazon. This exposure has seen the group attached to increasingly larger projects, such as the £120 million Wren Kitchens Factory in Humberside (Project ID: 19189460). In 2021, building turnover totalled £260 million (2020: £179 million).
The sports and leisure sector has proved particularly successful for Buckingham, which continues to provide new orders, such as the £80 million second phase of Liverpool FC’s Anfield Stadium redevelopment (Project ID: 14211048). In 2021, sports & leisure provided £120 million-worth of turnover (2020: £148 million).
Buckingham is on a number of long-term framework agreements, notably in the rail sector, but in 2021 rail turnover rose to £92 million (2020: £76 million), and an additional revenue of £56 million from HS2 was achieved (2020: £47 million). Civil engineering turnover was flat at £126 million (2020: £126 million).
The group also works in the demolition and land restoration sector for clients such as Panattoni and Rolls-Royce and in 2020 this brought in £10 million in revenue (2020: £8 million).
Glenigan Data
After a fall in 2020, orders at Buckingham have surged and reached £883.2 million in 2022 (2021: £694.7 million (2020: £301.8 million) and the group was ranked in 17th position in Glenigan’s annual ranking of the top 100 contractors by orders (2021: 22nd place).
Buckingham is ranked in the top 10 contractors in two regions in the UK and the greatest workload is in in the East Midlands, where orders of £192.8 million placed the group in third place. In the West Midlands, orders of £121.3 million ranked Buckingham in fourth spot.
Conclusion: Stadia proves costly again
After passing the £500 million mark in 2018, Buckingham’s stratospheric climb levelled out but the order book has more than doubled in the past two years and consolidated the group’s position amongst the industry’s Top 20 contractors. The rise evident in Glenigan’s figures is reflected in the latest company accounts, which show a record order book sustained at just over £1 billion (2020: £1 billion).
The group had hoped to bring in revenue of £600 million in 2020. Despite the onset of the pandemic, turnover was not far short of this target, which was surpassed the following year.
The group’s regional spread has reduced with Buckingham ranked in the Top 10 contractors in just two regions in 2022 – down from three in the previous year. The order book has been rebuilt by taking on larger projects, which helped the company grow in previous years.
In early 2020, Buckingham started its largest civils project to date with the £140 million-worth of work for Coventry and Warwickshire Development Partnership – a company wholly owned by key client Segro – on the Gateway South logistics site near Coventry Airport (Project ID: 18102425).
In 2015, a third of orders won by value had been civil engineering. By 2017, 55% of turnover still came from civil engineering and rail work. Civil engineering drove orders during the pandemic but in 2021, the percentage of the order book by value that was civil engineering fell to 17% with the balance provided by building work (2021: 44% building/56% civil engineering).
In 2013, the average contract award was just £6.3 million according to Glenigan’s research but this measure has subsequently ballooned. After a fall in the previous year, in 2022 the average contract award reached £26.7 million in 2022 (2020: £22.4 million).
Work on major projects tends to be riskier and the group has suffered with problem contracts. Buckingham is a specialist in stadia projects, but these have offered challenges. In 2019, AFC Wimbledon had to find another £11 million before Buckingham could complete the football club’s new stadium (Project ID: 13311358). Stadiums continue to dog the group with another £14.2 million exceptional item sending the group into the red in 2021 after a subcontractor failed on a project for Fulham FC, while Covid-19 continues to hit Buckingham and cost another £7.4 million in 2021: (2020: £5.3 million).
The target profit margin of 2.5% was however not achieved in 2020 and at an underlying level slipped to 1.8% in 2021 (2020: 2.4%) as the group continued to invest in staff to service burgeoning workload. In 2021, the workforce rose to an average of 658 people (2020: 623 people) and this pushed the wage bill up by 16% to £39.2 million (2020: £33.7 million). As a result, cash at the bank and in hand also fell back to £76.8 million (2020: £89.8 million).
The management expects revenue to have passed £700 million in 2022. With zero gearing and no use of credit facilities, Buckingham has a well-deserved reputation for prudence that should be enhanced by the shift to employee ownership. As the industry enters a shaky period for the wider economy, infrastructure work should gather strength and Buckingham looks well-placed to achieve its targets.
Winning Work With Buckingham Group
Buckingham is accredited to CHAS, RoSPA, the Link-up scheme for the rail industry and has a principal contractors’ license to work in the same sector. Buckingham also has Achilles accreditation to operate in the utilities sector and has been ISO certified at level ISO 9001, 14001 and 18001.
The group uses the Craig Tech Solutions for recruitment and is also accredited to the Planet Positive scheme aimed at monitoring and reducing energy consumption.
Buckingham has developed what the group describe as ‘close and long standing relationships with a wide range of key suppliers.’ Buckingham aims to work with these suppliers as part of its team and claims to pay better than average rates in order to ensure that long-lasting relationships are developed. Details on the company’s corporate sustainability policies can be found here. In the first instance, materials suppliers and manufacturers are asked to make contact by emailing – buying@buckinghamgroup.co.uk
Subcontractors interested in joining the group’s approved list of contractors are asked to contact – supplychain@buckinghamgroup.co.uk
Any enquiries regarding plant hire or supply of plant and equipment should go to – plant@buckinghamgroup.co.uk
Key Buckingham procurement contacts include:
Group purchasing manager – Neal Garside, tel: 01280-823355
Neal.garside@buckinghamgroup.co.uk
Supply chain manager – Dave Langslow, tel: 01280-823355
Dave.langslow@buckinghamgroup.co.uk
Ground engineering director – Mark Davis, tel: 01280-823355
Mark.davis@buckinghamgroup.co.uk
Commercial manager – Toby Hooper, tel: 01280-823355
Toby.hooper@buckinghamgroup.co.uk
Senior buyer & IT manager – Mike Fitzgerald, tel: 01280-823355
Mike.fitzgerald@buckinghamgroup.co.uk