Last updated 8 August 2022
SPIE UK
The origins of SPIE UK date to 1748, when Matthew Hall set up a lead-work and plumbing company in London. In 1988, Matthew Hall merged with AMEC, which in 2006 agreed to sell the business to French construction, facilities management and industrial engineering company SPIE.
SPIE, which dropped the Matthew Hall name in 2015, is one of the UK’s biggest mechanical and electrical contractors with a workforce of 1,800 people and an annual turnover of around £150 million.
Financials
Revenue from continuing operations fell to £148.4 million in the 2021 calendar year (2020: £192.5 million), but the group returned to profitability after trading in the red in the previous year. At an operating and pre-tax level, SPIE posted a profit of £2.5 million (2020: £21.6 million loss).
To view the financials for SPIE Limited, visit Companies House and use Company ID 06275653.
Operations
SPIE Limited is part of the SPIE group, which turned over more than €6.6 billion in 2020 and employs more than 30,000 people across Europe. In the UK, SPIE works across Great Britain and Northern Ireland and has three main offices Glasgow, London and Manchester.
The group works on a wide range of sectors, including aviation, commercial, corporate offices, data centres, defence, education, financial & professional services, food & beverage, healthcare, heritage, manufacturing, petrochemical, pharmaceutical & life sciences, retail & leisure, smart cities, steel, tunnels, transport & logistics.
SPIE has divisions covering industrial services, building services, facilities management and a Scottish multi-technical operation. SPIE is a member of the supply chain at many of the UK’s leading main contractors and works directly for clients including Rolls-Royce and directly for NHS trusts. The company has a place on the NHS Hard Facilities Management 2, which is expected to produce spending of up to £800 million up to 2026 (Project ID: 22190562).
SPIE also has a track record of working on airport projects and has full-time offices at Heathrow and Stansted airports and works on a number of long-term facilities management contracts in the public sector for clients such as Edinburgh City Council (Project ID: 15389460) and Merseyside Police Authority (Project ID: 13264515).
Glenigan Data
SPIE is attached to a number of long-term agreements ranging from Perth & Kinross Council’s £24 million four-year framework (Project ID: 19354032) to Oldham Council’s £53 million Construction Works and Services and Highways Framework (Project ID: 18341484) and the North & Mid Wales Trunk Road Agency’s £10 million Highway Mechanical, Electrical & Civil Engineering Framework Contract 2021 (Project ID: 21195875).
Glenigan’s market analysis also shows SPIE active in the public sector and places on long-term frameworks, such as the Common Services Agency’s £5.8 million framework (Project ID: 21437389).
Conclusion: Back in the black again
After successive years of trading in the red and restructuring, SPIE finally returned to the black in 2021 just as cost pressures over materials prices and labour rates began to escalate.
Costs have been cut with monies spent on property, plant and equipment falling to £1.0 million (2020: £1.7 million), but the costs of restructuring subsided to £1.1 million (2020: £4.8 million) and a historical contract dispute was settled for £2.9 million.
The workforce has also been slashed by 15% to an average of 1,824 people (2020: 2,149) with both administration and technical & operatives cut. This reduced the wage bill to £40.9 million (2020: £47.2 million) although the directors pay did increase to £585,000 (2020: £569,000). With income from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme falling to £512,000 (2020: £3.8 million), this overall decrease in expenditure will ease financial pressures.
The return to the black has finally emerged after a period of restructuring that began in 2017, when Robert Goodhew pushed through changes soon after being appointed chief executive. The decision to exit weak sectors, such as fire engineering, and restructure the business services division cost £2.7 million
This continued with the sale of the distribution and transmission contracts operation to Keltbray in 2018. The Keltbray sale was a significant retreat as SPIE had only moved into this sector in 2013 and a further loss was again booked in 2019, albeit only of £67,000. In October 2019, the management agreed a debt for equity swap that put £120 million into the UK operation.
The latest – and reduced – restructuring costs have generally been from exiting property leases, but the business has booked accumulated losses of £158.1 million and cash at bank and in hand slipped to £82.8 million (2020: £9.1 million).
With the fundamental changes needed to reposition the business made, SPIE UK is better placed to withstand the challenges that the construction industry will inevitably face as the recession bites. SPIE is among the top 10 M&E contractors, has the backing of a major international conglomerate and has a good spread of clients and will benefit from attempts by clients to bring M&E contractors into the procurement process earlier. This will be essential as SPIE has significant exposure to the public sector, which could well beat the brunt of any possible cuts in government capital spending in the near term.
Winning Work With SPIE UK
SPIE UK is accredited to a number of industry bodies, such as Constructionline, and also uses supply chain evaluation service provider Achilles, which assess the company on health and safety, environmental and quality. The group works to a policy of continuous process improvement (CPI) and has attended events such as Meet The Buyer in the past. SPIE had its supply chain independently evaluated by Achilles.
SPIE operates a fully integrated Maintenance, Repairs and Operations (MRO) solution that combines supply-chain procurement with whole-life operational facility management.
Details on SPIE UK’s supplier”s charter can be found here.
Key SPIE UK procurement contacts include:
Procurement manager – John Reddy, tel: 020-7105-2300