Last updated 7 February 2023
Farrans
The origins of Farrans Construction date back to the completion of Maghaberry Airfield in Northern Ireland by Sam Taggart of Bernard Sunley & Co in 1940. A year later, Taggart bought out Sunley & Co and formed Farrans and expanded into Edinburgh in 1947 and London in 1949. In 1978, Farrans was bought by the Irish materials group CRH and trades as a division of Northstone (NI), which is a subsidiary of CRH.
Today, Northstone (NI) employs around 1,400 people and turns over more than £360 million a year.
Financials
After a fall in the previous year, revenue at Northstone (NI) rebounded in the 2021 calendar year to £472. Million (2020: £362.5 million). After trading in the red in 2020 for the first time since 2017, the business returned to the black.
At an operating level, a profit of £8.4 million was registered (2020: £5.9 million loss). Before tax, the profit was smaller at £4.3 million (2020: £6.9 million loss).
To view the financials for Northstone (NI) Limited, visit Companies House and use Company ID NI004078.
Operations
This group comes under the umbrella of Northstone (NI) and includes building and civil engineering contracting as Farrans (Construction), the production and supply of building materials as Northstone Materials and the manufacture of access systems to the utility industry as Cubis Industries.
Farrans has expanded from its original base in Belfast into the British mainland and operates separate building, civil engineering, healthcare, homes and utilities divisions from offices in London, Cambridge, Belfast, Edinburgh and Leeds.
Farrans has a major presence in the schools’ sector working for clients ranging from East Sussex County Council to the London Boroughs of Hillingdon and Southwark. The company is also on a number of long-term agreements including the £750 million Public Buildings Construction and Infrastructure (PB3) framework, which will run until 2025 (Project ID: 20178652), and the Department of Health’s £30 billion Procure 23 National Framework (Project ID: 19450830).
Farrans has a traditionally strong presence in civil engineering and works in joint ventures with other main contractors on some major projects, such as the £120 million Third River Crossing in Great Yarmouth with BAM Nuttall (Project ID: 08186837), and the £175 million Belfast Transport Hub with Sacyr (Project ID: 14249512).
The company also works in the utilities sector on major schemes such as the £50 million Tess Pipeline in County Durham for Northumbrian Water (Project ID: 21344337). Farrans is also on NI Water’s £200 million 10-year IFO2-PC15 framework (Project ID: 13376608).
In 2021, revenue from building and civil engineering contracting revenue leapt to £279.4 million (2020: £201.7 million) and turnover from road construction and quarrying firmed to £74.6 million (2020: £72.9 million). The rest of the group’s revenue comes from the manufacture of concrete and construction and utility accessories, both of which rose.
Glenigan Data
In the 2022 calendar year, Farrans won 18 contracts valued at £250,000 or more (2021: 9). The total value of these contracts was £340.2 million (2021: £197.4 million) and this ranked Farrans in 34th position in Glenigan’s rankings of the construction industry’s top 100 contractors (2021: 45th).
Conclusion: Out on its own?
Since CRH acquired Farrans in 1978, the parent company has grown into one of the world’s largest materials business with activities range from Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, into Eastern Europe in Poland, the Ukraine and Romania and across Asia through China, India and the Philippines and the Americas.
While Farrans worked in the Middle East in the late 1960s the group’s focus has remained in the United Kingdom but this retrenchment did not mean contraction. In 2014, an office in Manchester was opened and followed by an office in Woking in 2016 and the company is established amongst the UK’s top 50 contractors but was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Major projects such as the £121 million Third River Crossing had lifted the order book in 2020. These were not supplemented in 2021, which produced a fall of 48%, but the most recent year saw a number of major awards including the Belfast Transport Hub and a £54 million redevelopment of Flitwick Leisure Centre in Bedfordshire (Project ID: 14116459) and the order book leapt by 72% in 2022.
The order book remains more focused on civil engineering, which provided 61% of contracts won by value in 2021 (2021: 63% civil engineering/37% building). Taking on larger civil engineering projects had pushed up the risk profile but in 2021 there were fewer major projects taken on. As a result, the value of the average contract award reduced was valued at £18.9 million (2021: £21.9 million).
Geographically, Farrans has a large exposure to Scotland. In 2022, the largest market exposure by contract value was in Northern Ireland, where the group is working on the first two phases, worth £50 million of the Tribeca Belfast development (Project ID: 17385965) and is ranked second in Glenigan’s Top for the province with orders totalling £107.9 million. Farrans was also in the regional Top 10 in the east of England with orders totalling £112.8 million.
The UK remains the core market and in 2021 provided revenue of £418.4 million (2020: £330.8 million) but Farrans presence in the Republic of Ireland has been bolstered by a place, along with five other contractors on Dublin City Council’s £750 million Residential Design and Build Contractors Framework (Project ID: 20517830).
In 2021, turnover in the Republic of Ireland doubled to £41.4 million (2020: £22.6 million). Outside of the UK and Ireland, turnover from Europe edged up to £9.8 million (2020: £7.5 million).
Farrans has kept control of costs. The average number of employees was static at 1,402 people (2020: 1,405 people) but the wage bill rose to £53.2 million (2020: £49.3 million).
Despite this, cash at the bank and in hand virtually doubled to £13.8 million (2020: £7.2 million).
Going forward, the focus on civils work in the UK, which is a rare bright spot expected to be unaffected by Brexit and a beneficiary of post-virus state investment, will offer growth opportunities, particularly roads and water work. This outlook coupled with the latest strong set of results will help owner CRH to offload Farrans, which was signalled as the intent at the end of 2022.
Winning work with Farrans
Farrans Construction has a wide range of industry accreditations from membership of CHAS and Constructionline to Investors in People and a position as an accredited employer through Engineers Ireland. The group has a range of policies on subjects from anti-slavery to sustainable development, which can be viewed here.
Companies interested in becoming an approved supplier for Farrans can express an interest here.
Key Procurement Contacts for Farrans contracting activities
Commercial manager – Gareth Wilson, tel 01763-850600
Procurement Manager – Peter Kennedy, tel 01763-850600