Last updated 6 February 2023
McLaren Construction Group
McLaren Construction Group is part of the McLaren group of companies, which was established in 2001 by Kevin Taylor and Phil Pringle.
McLaren operates in construction, property and development in the UK and United Arab Emirates, employs around 700 people and has annual turnover of more than £750 million.
Financials
In the latest available results for McLaren Construction Group for the 12 months to July 2022, group revenue surged to £751.6 million (2021: £541.0 million) and the business returned to the black. At an operating level, a profit of £1.2 million (2021: £13.9 million loss) was posted and before tax the business made a profit of £1.8 million (2021: £12.4 million).
To view the financials for McLaren Construction Group, visit Companies House and use Company ID 5384316.
Operations
McLaren works in the commercial offices, mixed-use buildings, residential, retail, education, distribution and logistics, hotels and leisure sectors. The group’s head office is in Brentwood, Essex, and offices in Birmingham, Chiswell Street in central London, Reading and Warrington.
McLaren also has an interiors division that operates out of Chiswell Street, a property division based at Curzon Street in Soho, central London, and two international offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The group works with major blue chip clients, including Argent, Audley, British Land, Dar, Helical Bar, Quintain, Legal & General, YardNine and Muse and other businesses ranging from Pocket Living, Leicester City FC and the Salvation Army to local authorities including Barking & Dagenham, Basildon and Camden.
McLaren is also working on a number of flagship schemes ranging from Aston Martin’s £200 million Project Evolution headquarters development in Towcester (Project ID: 18443992) to the £90 million Leon Quarter in Croydon (Project ID: 18314219).
McLaren is also on long-term agreements in including Argent’s £200 million framework (Project ID: 17303072) and also in the social housing sector for registered social landlords. Examples include Notting Hill Genesis’ £250 million contractor framework for development programme for (Project ID: 21419547) and Hyde Housing’s £2 billion contractor framework (Project ID: 19267402).
In 2022, McLaren handed over 19 projects (2021: 22 projects). The United Kingdom provided the vast majority of earnings with turnover of £692.4 million (2021: £458.2 million). The United Arab Emirates produced revenue of £59.2 million (2021: £82.9 million).
Glenigan Data
In the 2022 calendar year, McLaren won £747.6 million-worth of work (2021: (£768.5 million). This total ranked the group in 19th position in Glenigan’s rankings of the industry’s Top 100 contractors (2021: 17th).
The group is ranked among the top 10 contractors in just one of the UK’s 12 economic regions. In London, McLaren was ranked sixth place after winning £427.8 million-worth of work.
Conclusion: Back in the black
In 2021, the group broke into Glenigan’s rankings of the UK’s top 20 contractors as workload boomed. That has subsequently slowed with fewer of the large value projects that drove the group’s growth taken on. McLaren has lost market share and is on the verge of slipping out of Glenigan’s Top 20.
McLaren has recovered from a difficult period in 2020, when the group slumped into the red after making a provision of £19.4 million for a cancelled infrastructure contract at its Midlands & North subsidiary and revenue not also plummeted by 19% due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
So a slowdown in the rebound was to be expected, particularly as the key London commercial market has also quietened. The group is overly exposed to the capital, and the impact of Brexit and Covid-19 made this exposure problematic. McLaren is on some frameworks but generally has a policy of working on a handful of major projects, particularly in London.
McLaren has taken on a number of major schemes outside the capital including a £200 million headquarters for Aston Martin in Towcester (Project ID: 18443992), but the failure of a subcontractor on a job in Brighton produced the provisions that sent McLaren into the red in 2021.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the exposure to London has grown with work such as a £113 million contract for Building R8 at Argent’s development at Kings Cross in central London (Project ID: 19267848), the £90 million Clearings scheme in Kensington on (Project ID: 11290097) and a £77.5 million deal to re-clad four residential towers in Camden (Project ID: 18288851).
Five of the seven biggest contracts won by McLaren in 2022 were in London and 57% of the overall work won by value was in the capital (2021: 44%) with the average contract award valued at £47.5 million (2021: £42.2 million). Overall, the average contract won in 2022 was valued by Glenigan at £32.5 million (2021: £40.4 million)
The group eschews civil engineering work, which comprised just 0.1% of the work won by value in 2022 (2021: 100% building work) and revenue looks set to rise as McLaren signed up a raft of new work. The order book surged by 273% and the group returned to Glenigan’s rankings of the industry’s Top 20 contractors but this was achieved by taking on larger projects, which are inherently more risky.
McLaren claimed in its 2020 report to have concentrated on an ‘overhead realignment’ and in the subsequent financial year there were major cuts to the overheads. The workforce was reduced by 8% in 2021 but grew in the latest year to an average of 733 people (2021: 664 people) and the wage bill rose to £57.4 million (2021: £51.9 million).
Cash at the bank and in hand at the group rose strongly to £69.2 million (2021: £43.9 million) and net assets increased to £26.7 million (2021: £19.0 million). The group back in the black as the wider economy is expected to struggle, so the cost base may need to be addressed again as margins come under pressure from rising supply chain and material costs.
Winning Work with McLaren Construction
McLaren says that it will always consider potential supply chain partners that share the group’s ‘professional ethos towards collaborative working and our core values’. Subcontractors wishing to be considered for work with McLaren must hold either: ‘Achilles Building Confidence’ accreditation (Desktop – plus an SSIP, 1 Day or 2 Day Audit) or ‘Constructionline’ accreditation (Silver – plus an SSIP or Gold)
The group is a member of the Considerate Constructor’s scheme, McLaren’s policies can be viewed here. To register an interest in working for McLaren, click here.
Key McLaren Construction Group procurement contacts include:
Group commercial director – David Miller, tel: 01277-205-800
David.miller@mclarenconstructiongroup.com
Operations group director – Andrew James, tel: 01277-205-800
Andrew.james@mclarenconstructiongroup.com
Planning director – Brendan Johnston, tel: 01277-205-800
Brendan.johnston@mclarenconstructiongroup.com
Procurement director – Steve Button, tel: 01277-205-800
Steve Button@mclarenconstructiongroup.com
Group head of human resources – Beverley Whiteford, tel: 01277-205-800