Last updated 27th April 2023
Tilbury Douglas (formerly Interserve Group)
Tilbury Douglas is one of the UK’s larger construction groups delivering around £450m of projects each year through its building, infrastructure, engineering and fit-out businesses.
The group has strong positions in regional and public sector contracting with wide experience in the health, education, defence, justice, water and highways sectors and operates through a network of 20 offices nationwide.
Around 80% of its projects are for the public sector with the remainder for utilities and blue chip clients, including universities. The group had an order book of around £1billion for secured and preferred contractor work at the end of 2022. Meanwhile, of its new projects at preferred contractor status, some 90% are through frameworks.
The group employs around 960 people and opened a new office in Southampton in February 2023.
Tilbury Douglas’s parent company Interserve was put into administration in mid-March 2019 and the business and assets of the group were sold to a new company controlled by the group”s lenders. In May 2022, the company was acquired by Tilbury Douglas Holdings – along with Tilbury Douglas Engineering – to form the Tilbury Douglas Group, which in turn was acquired by TD Bidco Ltd.
Following the administration, the group has returned to its roots and is now a focused construction business which has been re-branded Tilbury Douglas. Its global equipment hire arm, RMD Kwikform, is reported to have been sold and the group’s support services businesses have also been disposed of.
Paul Gandy – who joined the company in 2019 and has 35 years industry experience and previously held senior roles at Kier, Lend Lease and Balfour Beatty – was named chief executive officer in August 2022 with Nicholas Pollard as chairman.
Meanwhile, in early 2023, the group appointed a new commercial director, Martyn Smith, with wide experience, most recently as commercial director at Ferrovial Construction and having held senior positions at Kier, Costain and Vinci.
The group’s latest annual report, published in February 2023, said at end-2021, Tilbury Douglas had stabilised, restructured, rebranded and begun to rebuild its order book with improved efficiency, better resilience and reliable performance. The group has also made ‘considerable progress’ in settling historic disputes and completing problem contracts with a full exit from legacy energy from waste contracts.
Financials
To view the financials for Tilbury Douglas Construction (Interserve Construction) visit Companies House and use Company ID 00303359.
The latest results for Tilbury Douglas Construction showed that revenues in 2021 rose to £446.9 million from £372.3 million previously and it reported an underlying operating profit of £9.8 million compared to a loss of £10.4 million previously. The pre-tax profit fell to £8.3 million, down from £15.4 profit previously. Net assets stood at £9.9 million and the group had cash at bank of £25 million, up from £15.7 million previously. As at December 2022, the group had an order book of £1,020 of secured or preferred contractor work.
Construction
Tilbury Douglas has four main businesses;
Regional Building – working through a network of regional offices, providing new build and refurbishment projects across a wide range of sectors and it holds positions on various frameworks.
The group’s fit out business, Paragon, has been integrated into its regional building business and works chiefly on government fit out work, defence and justice. Paragon delivers fast track Cat A and Cat B fit out and refurbishment projects. The business has been working on a major fit out project at The Science Museum in London.
Infrastructure – a civils business focused on small and medium scale works with specialisms in water, environmental and highways mainly through frameworks. Clients include Northumbrian Water, Wessex Water, Thames Water and Yorkshire Water and the division has longstanding links with National Highways.
The group also has an M&E business, Tilbury Douglas Engineering which provides an integrated delivery solution working with the firm’s regional building, fitout and infrastructure businesses. The division has a blue chip client list and worked on the fast track delivery of the NHS Nightingale Hospital in Birmingham under Covid restrictions and on the Proton Beam Therapy Centre in Manchester.
Today, Tilbury Douglas is maintaining momentum in its core public sector markets. In March 2023, the group won places on all five lots of the four-year Southern Construction Framework, a jv between Devon and Hampshire county councils on education, health and local authority schemes across Greater London, the South East of England and the South West of England.
Also in early 2023, Tilbury Douglas was appointed on the new Pagabo Medium Works Framework – a four-year arrangement running across 42 regions on projects ranging from £50k to £10m in value.
Elsewhere in health in early 2023, Tilbury Douglas won a contract for a £26.5m replacement outpatients building at Haywood Community Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent for Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
The firm is also the lead contractor on a £130m refurbishment underway at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, which it originally built in the 1970s and on the new Urgent and Emergency Care facility at Arrowe Park Hospital at Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, where work started in early 2023.
In education, Tilbury Douglas was appointed in early 2023 to lead the construction of St Mary’s Catholic Voluntary Academy, the UK’s first purpose built biophilic primary school – which aims to connect occupants of a building with nature and increase biodiversity through design – as part of a DfE pilot scheme. The group has also recently won a contract to build the new Wednesfield Technology Primary School for the DfE in Wolverhampton.
The company was re-signed in late 2020 on the Eastern Highways Alliance Framework 3. Covering ten councils in the east of England, the framework’s £400m contract will involve it in two out of three of the contracted projects. It is also working on the Thames Water framework.
Glenigan Data
Glenigan data shows that Tilbury Douglas ranks as the 34th largest contractor in the UK with 72 significant contracts in the year up to March 2023, worth a total of £326.3 million. Building work accounted for the lion’s share of the significant new contracts, worth £237.5million and civils contracts were worth £88.8 million.
Conclusion: Healthy order book and strong market positions point to long term resilience
Whilst the administration of its parent company hardly helped its market profile, Tilbury Douglas seems to be succeeding in remaining a major force in the UK construction sector. The group”s construction business is continuing to win orders and is maintaining a healthy position particularly in the public sector health and education building markets, notably in the Midlands and the North West. Recent appointments suggest it is keen to expand its infrastructure workload and the company should benefit as its focus shift towards lower-risk opportunities.
Winning Work with Tilbury Douglas
The company operates a preferred supplier list and details of its various policies can be seen on a page on its website here.
Key contacts
Jamie Swanston is Procurement & Supply Chain Director,
He has more than 20 years’ experience and was most recently procurement and supply chain director at NMCN.
Tel: 0121 344 4888
Steve Lane, Procurement and Supply Chain Manager, Tilbury Douglas West Midlands
Tel: 0121 344 4888