Last updated 12 January 2023
Renew Holdings Plc
Renew is a construction conglomerate with activities in main and specialist contracting. Origins at the Young James Lovell part of the business date back more than two centuries. The group later group consolidated and made a number of acquisitions that would comprise much of the main business for many years.
Renew has an annual turnover of more than £800 million a year, and the company’s shares are listed on the Alternative Investment Market.
Financials
Turnover in the 12 months to September 2022 rose to £849.0 million (2021: £791.0 million) and profitability continued to strengthen. Before tax, profit leapt £50.0 million (2021: £40.7 million). At an operating level, profits rose to £49.5 million (2021: £41.4 million).
To view the financials for Renew Holdings Plc, visit Companies House and use Company ID 00650447.
Operations
Renew operates in energy, environment, infrastructure and specialist building through nine operating companies: AmcoGiffen, Browne, Enisca, Carnell, Clarke Telecom, Envolve, QTS, SEL, Seymour, VHE and Walter Lilly. In financial terms, the group comprises two divisions focusing on Engineering Services and Specialist Building.
Engineering Services
The Engineering Services division now comprises more than 90% of group turnover and includes AmcoGiffen, Clarke Telecom, Lewis, QTS, Seymour, SEL, Shepley and VHE and has been the subject of the group’s growth strategy.
Clients range from National Grid and Network Rail to Manchester Airports Group, water companies, such as Northumbrian, Wessex and Welsh, councils such as Devon and Leeds and work in the nuclear sector for Sellafield.
Subsidiaries at this division are on a number of major framework agreements, with AmcoGiffen on Network Rail’s £4 billion buildings and civils framework in the West and Wales, which runs until 2025 (Project ID: 18295984) and a £500 million agreement with the Canal & River Trust that runs to 2032 (Project ID: 20503587).
In 2022, revenue including share of joint ventures grew to £778.9 million (2021: £706.7 million) and this division made an adjusted operating profit of £59.1 million (2021: £51.5 million).
Specialist Building
This division comprises Britannia and Walter Lilly and focuses on high-end residential work in the south east of England and work on below-ground extensions in London.
In 2022, revenue at the specialist building division slipped back to £70.1 million (2021: £84.4 million) and operating profits edged up to £1.7 million (2021: £1.6 million).
Glenigan Data
As Renew has focused more on specialist engineering instead of traditional contracting, the group dropped out of Glenigan’s ranking of the top 100 main contractors.
In 2022, Renew made a return as the order book rose to £114 .9 million (2021: £39.7 million) and the group was ranked in 73rd position.
Conclusion: Well set
Renew has bounced back strongly from the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic and the group”s long tradition of corporate activity is paying off as investment across the infrastructure sector dividends.
After buying rail contractor Giffen for £7.2 million in 2017 and merging this business with existing subsidiary Amco, then in May 2018, acquiring civil engineering and rail contractor QTS for £80 million, activity subsided until the entry to the highways sector via the acquisition of Carnell is timely. Carnell is working on a number of major highways schemes, including the £220 million Area 10 highways maintenance framework (Project ID: 18003676) covering North West England and on National Highway’s £3.6 billion Operations Scheme Delivery Framework (Project ID: 20165485).
Work in the water sector has increased through the acquisition in March 2021 of J Browne Construction and this followed with Enisca acquired n November 2021.
Investment in the rail network over Control Period 6 up to 2024 will be key as Network Rail is the group’s largest customer. Renew is also well-placed to benefit from investment in telecoms, particularly the £500 million being spent on rural services, while energy and water work will also see significant investment in the coming years and the group is well-placed with its specialist operations on long term contracts such as Yorkshire Water’s £1 billion AMP7 framework (Project ID: 17135261).
At November 2022, the group had net cash of £20.2 million (2021: net debt £13.7 million) the order book had strengthened to £775 million (2021: £749 million). Glenigan’s data shows that the risk profile remains relatively low and the average contract won by Renew’s subsidiaries was valued at £4.6 million (2021: £4.0 million).
The future of the building division had looked in question after the sale of Allenbuild in 2014 and revenue dwindled before starting to recover only for the pandemic to hit. The residual building activities moved into different sectors for clients outside of high-end residential. Walter Lilly has secured a place on DEFRA’s £600 million science engineering delivery framework (Project ID: 21205273).
There has subsequently been significant improvement in trading at this segment, and in 2022, 54% of orders by value were civil engineering and the balance in building (2021: 87% civil engineering/13% building). The management continues to look for new avenues and the move into water looks set to pay further dividends as engineering services remains the focus.
Winning Work with Renew
Each of Renew’s operating companies have individual procurement strategies and systems.
AmcoGiffen is accredited to BS EN ISO 9001, BS EN ISO 14001, BS OHSAS 18001, CHAS and Construction Online. The group has a principal contractor licence and rail link up approval from Network Rail, and the latter also from Irish Rail. Amco also has UVDB Verify certificate of assessment and is accredited to the UVDB Utilities Prequalification scheme.
Britannia is accredited to CHAS, Constructionline, EXOR, SAFEContractor2012, the Considerate Constructors’ scheme and the halving waste to landfill initiative. The group has used the August Breakfast Club to meet potential new suppliers and sub-contractors.
VHE is a member of the Considerate Constructors’ scheme and accredited to Achilles UVDB, CHAS, SAFEContractor2012 and Constructionline. The group has reached OHSAS 18001 for Health and Safety Management, ISO 14001 for Environmental Management and ISO 9001 for Quality Management.
Walter Lilly favours local suppliers for labour intensive areas. Subcontractors and suppliers must submit acceptable Health & Safety information and undergo a credit check then fill out a pre-qualification questionnaire. Subcontractors or suppliers wishing to be included should make initial contact at – supplychain@walter-lilly.co.uk.
Key Renew Procurement Contacts include:
AmcoGiffen head of procurement & supply chain – Ben McCluskey, tel: 01925-838070
Shepley Engineers Commercial Manager – Robert Quinn, tel: 01946 599022
Robert.Quinn@shepley.vhe.co.uk
VHE Construction Estimating Manager – Mark Webster, tel: 0113-273-9200
VHE Contracts Manager – Richard Blakey, tel: 0113-273-9200
VHE Commercial Director – Mark Goldsworthy, tel: 0113-273-9200
Walter Lilly Managing Estimator – Dean Hollingsworth, tel: 020-8730 6200
hollingsworthd@walter-lilly.co.uk
Walter Lilly Contracts Manager – Steve Edwards, tel: 020 8730 6200