Last updated 22 April 2022
Durkan Holdings Limited
Durkan Holdings Limited is the UK operation of the Durkan Group, which was set up in 1963. The UK operation was formed in 1970 and turns over more than £130 million a year building both private housing and operates for external clients as a contractor on social housing and education projects, mainly in southern England, with a workforce of around 160 directly employed staff.
Financials
After successive falls in revenue, turnover at Durkan rebounded in the 12 months to November 2021 to £137.5 million (2020: £102.4 million). Operating profits however fell back again and dropped to £0.7 million (2020: £2.1 million) and to just over £0.7 million at a pre-tax level (2020: £2.4 million).
To view the financials for Durkan Holdings Ltd, visit Companies House and use Company ID 01316529.
Operations
After a strategic review in 2018, the group reorganised into three main divisions: contracting, housebuilding and partnerships.
Contracting
Durkan’s construction operation works on public new-build and refurbishment housing work and in the education sector. Clients range from private developers such as Optivo to a host of registered social landlords, such as A2 Dominion, Clarion, Network Homes and Peabody, to local authorities including Harlow District Council and London boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Ealing and Wandsworth.
The group is also on a number of long-term agreements for housing associations including Fusion21’s £750 million decarbonisation framework running to 2026 (Project ID: 21435271) and A2 Dominion’s £900 million commercial contractor framework (Project ID: 20360660), which runs to 2025. The group is also on Homes England’s £20 billion Delivery Partner Dynamic Purchasing System (Project ID: 21235829).
In 2021, turnover from contracting surged to £124.2 million (2020: £87.4 million).
Housebuilding
This is the group’s private housebuilding operation, which has been particularly hard hit by the recession with revenue that had reached £90 million in 2010 subsequently falling dramatically. Recent developments have been at Wintringham Park in St. Neots, where the group will develop 293 homes (Project ID: 20328198.
In 2020, turnover from residential sales fell back to £13.2 million (2021: £15.1 million).
Partnerships
Durkan Partnerships was launched in spring 2012 to help clients fund and develop new housing. This division provides a link between the construction and housebuilding operations, which both provide resources for this venture. Durkan is working in partnership with the likes of the London Borough of Southwark and University of Cambridge to develop land into housing.
Glenigan Data
In the 12 months to Q1 2021 calendar year, Durkan’s order book increased to £135.1 million (2020: £58.9). All of this work remains building-related and Durkan was ranked in 56th position in Glenigan’s top 100 ranking of main contractors by orders (2021: 94th).
In terms of housebuilding activity, Glenigan’s research shows Durkan did not make any detailed planning applications in 2021 (2020: 164 units).
Conclusion: Recovering, slowly
Durkan closed sites for the best part of two months in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which explained another fall in revenue in 2020. Turnover has since recovered but remains below pre-pandemic levels and profitability continues to fall.
Despite this fall, the group maintained its workforce and the average number of employees in 2021 was 158 (2020: 161 people) and the wage bill rose to £13.1 million (2020: £12.6 million). Net assets have dropped to £1.3 million (2020: £3.4 million) but cash at the bank and in hand, despite a fall, remains strong at £41.7 million (2020: £46.1 million) as contracting revenue leapt by 42%.
This looks to continue as the order book has shown signs of significant growth with a 129% year-on-year rise in the 12 months to Q1 2022 according to Glenigan’s data. This has come as Durkan took on larger projects such as the £40 million Kidbrooke Park Road residential development for Royal Borough of Greenwich (Project ID: 20324671) and the £25 million Project Redwood at Chesham in Buckinghamshire for Paradigm Housing (Project ID: 0)6206673
This has also increased the risk profile with larger projects taken on. The average contract award in the 12 months to Q1 2022 was valued by Glenigan at £19.3 million (2021: £8.4 million). The regional focus remains on southern England and has increased in London. The capital provided 58% of the order book by value in 2022 (2021: 48%) as exposure in the South East reduced to 18% (2021: 29%).
After resuming planning activity in the previous year, the site shutdowns seemed to have deterred Durkan from sending in any detailed planning applications for new homes, which will not help the plan to grow the housebuilding division. The group does however have sites with permission at Bengo and is working with Urban & Civic as part of a larger development at St Neots.
The group is also working with the University of Cambridge and the London Borough of Southwark and has options on three sites in Hatfield Broad Oak, Welham Green and Orsett, which are due to start on site in 2023.
While the focus on partnerships appears to have withered, Durkan puts the contracting order book at £325 million for 2022 and beyond.
Since Ronan Murphy took over as chief executive in 2019, a host of management changes have been pushed through including the recruitment of a new finance director from St George and the more recent promotion of new business director Tim Carpenter to managing director of construction.
While housing sales may slow with the withdrawal of Help to Buy, Durkan looks in good shape to continue to grow turnover as the industry bounces back quickly from the worst of the pandemic.
Winning Work With Durkan
Durkan is registered with the Considerate Constructors scheme and accredited to CHAS, Constructionline, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and the National House-Building Council. The group is also EXOR approved and aims to procure locally for materials and subcontractors wherever possible.
The purchase of all materials and manufactured components is organised and controlled by chief buyer, Stuart Cooksey. He manages a team of four buyers and is responsible for ensuring products are fit for purpose and meet site delivery programmes.
Companies joining Durkan’s supply chain need to register with Constructionline and then, quoting the Constructionline number, send a single A4 page introducing the company to supply.chain@durkan.co.uk
More information on Durkan’s supply chain can be found here.
Key Durkan procurement contacts include:
Head of preconstruction – Richard Barber, tel: 01992-781400
Technical director – Gary Barton, tel: 01992-781400
Gary Barton@durkan.co.uk
Operations director – Jason Smith, tel: 01992-781400
Chief buyer – Stu Cooksley, tel: 01992-781400
Chief estimator – Pat Riordan, tel: 01992-781400