Last updated 12 July 2022
John Graham Construction
Graham is one of the UK’s oldest construction groups with origins dating back to the 18th century. The group was incorporated in Dromore in 1878 and has expanded out of Northern Ireland and into mainland Britain into a business working on building and civil engineering with a turnover of more than £900 million and employs around 2,200 people.
Financials
In 2017, Graham’s turnover passed the half a billion pounds mark for the first time and income continued to rise until 2019. The onset of the pandemic hit volumes but the group has recovered and surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
In the 12 months to March 2022, revenue rebounded strongly by 18% to £948.0 million (2021: £808.1 million) and profitability strengthened at an even faster rate, leaping by 54% to £19.0 million (2021: £12.1 million (£11.2 million).
To view the financials for John Graham Holdings Ltd, visit Companies House and use Company ID NI057921.
Operations
Graham operates out of a network of offices in 15 cities in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. The company works in building, civil engineering, interior fit-out, project investment and facilities management.
Construction
Graham’s biggest division in terms of turnover is construction, which has managed to expand during a difficult period for the construction industry both regionally and in terms of sectors and established a place amongst the UK’s top 20 contractors.
The company has building, civil engineering and fit-out divisions and works in the private and public sectors for a number of blue chip private sector clients, such as Standard Life and Highways England.
The building operation works on all levels of the education sector, on major schemes such as the University of Glasgow’s £700 million Gilmore Campus (Project ID: 15404275), while the health sector has traditionally provided a steady income. Graham is on a wide range number of long-term agreements in the building sector, ranging from the Department for Works and Pensions’ £375 million Estates Contractor Framework (Project ID: 17095884) to Notting Hill Genesis’ £250 million Contractor Framework for Development Programme (Project ID: 21419547)
Civil work includes the £93 million M2 junction 5 improvements in Kent (Project ID: 16135588) to the £124 million M25 Junction 28 in Essex (Project ID: 14439523) and places on major long-term agreements such as National Highways £3.6 billion five year Operations Scheme Delivery Framework (Project ID: 20165485) and NI Water’s £1.2 billion Major Project Partnering Framework (Project ID: 21039867).
Asset Management
This division comprises Graham Facilities Management, Graham Environmental Services, Graham Energy Management, Graham Fire & Security and Graham Highway Management Maintenance. These businesses work in health, education, local authority provision and the commercial sector.
Investment Projects
Graham is part of a number of Private Finance Initiative or Public Private Partnership concessions in the education, health and roads sectors in the UK and Ireland.
Glenigan Data
Glenigan’s data shows that in the 12 months to Q2 2022, Graham’s order book passed the billion pound mark to reach £1,102.3 million (2021: £951.6 million). Graham was ranked 10th in Glenigan’s ranking of the UK’s top 50 contractors (2021: 13th)
In regional terms, the group features amongst the top 10 contractors in three of the UK’s dozen economic regions. The biggest regional exposure by project value is in Scotland, where has a £310 million order book and is ranked fourth. In the North West, Graham has won orders totalling £229 million and is ranked second. In Northern Ireland, a £71 million order book merits top spot and in the North East, Graham has an order book totalling £96.5 million and is ranked fifth.
Conclusion: Heading for the top table
Graham has emerged from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic in good condition with a burgeoning order that has put the group amongst the UK’s top 10 contractors.
This rise has come in part by taking on substantially larger projects, which would increase the risk profile and Glenigan’s research shows that the size of the average contract won by Graham in the 12 months to Q2 2022 firmed at £28.2 million (2021: £21.2 million).
There is a growing focus on building work, which comprises 93% of the latest order book by value with the balance coming from civil engineering (2021: 81% building/19% civil engineering).
This shift was come as the company has reduced forward order exposure from the roads sector, which has had an impacted on workload in this sector. Graham is ranked in 14th position in Glenigan’s ranking of the UK’s top highways contractors (2021: 13th) but the order book has dropped to £47.0 million (2021: £163.8million).
Revenue in the year to March 2022 was nearly £100 million ahead of the pre-pandemic figure posted two years earlier, while cash in hand has strengthened to £127 million (2021: £119 million).
Furlough grants from the government’s coronavirus job retention scheme enabled the group to avoid large cuts to the workforce, which remains at around 2,200 people. This also boosted the operating margin, which increased to 2.0% (2021: 1.5%).
The challenges brought by the virus undermined the management’s plans of stabilising revenue at around £900 million, but the group has rebounded strongly and puts its own work pipeline at £1.9 billion. With Glenigan’s data also showing strong growth in main contracts awarded, Graham looks on the verge of becoming a billion pound turnover contractor in the near future.
Winning Work With Graham
Graham is a member of the Considerate Contractors scheme and has policies for a range of areas relating to procurement available for download in PDF format on the group’s website. These range from an energy climate change statement to policies on materials resource efficiency, waste management and sustainable procurement, which can be accessed here. Suppliers accredited to work for Graham are provided with their own site log-in details.
Key Graham procurement contacts include:
Head of estimating and procurement – Jonathan Hall, tel: 0161-877-5533