Last updated 14 June 2022
J Murphy & Sons
J Murphy & Sons is a significant player in the London infrastructure markets and one of the UK’s largest privately-owned contractors. The firm’s core markets include rail, station upgrades, water & wastewater, power, tunnels, highways & streetworks, building & property development, utility connections on gas, electrical & water, piling, pipeline testing services and special geotechnical services.
Headquartered in north London, the family-owned company also has regional offices in Astley, Cannock, Golborne, Leeds, Ollerton and Stonecross. The group also works in the Republic of Ireland and Canada, employs nearly 3,500 people and turns over nearly £1.3 billion a year.
Financials
In the 2021 calendar year, turnover rose to £1,274.4 million (2020: £1,115.9 million) and operating profits surged to £21.7 million (2020: £13.0 million). At a pre-tax level, profits ballooned to £61.6 million (2020: £9.5 million).
To see the financials for J Murphy & Sons Ltd, visit Companies House and use Company ID 00492042.
Operations
Process Energy Pipelines
Founded in 1965 to focus on the oil, gas and water sectors, Murphy Process Energy Pipelines is a leader in the design and construction of major cross country and urban pipelines, AGI’s and compression stations.
Rail, Railways, Station Upgrades
The group has a longstanding client list that includes Crossrail, Network Rail, London Underground, Eurotunnel CTRL and various train operating companies. The firm operates under a principal contractors’ licence and its multi-skilled workforce works across the sector. Murphy has an emergency call-out service to handle temporary repairs nationally and operates on a number of major long-term framework agreements including Network Rail’s £402 million East West Rail Link 2 scheme (Project ID: 16021036).
Water & Wastewater
Murphy has wide experience dealing with treatment plants, lagoons, reservoirs, pumping station, tunnelling, wastewater networks and water main construction and renovation. KMI Plus, a joint venture of Kier, Murphy, Interserve and Mouchel, provides solutions to United Utilities. Murphy also works for Wessex Water and Thames Water and is on a number of long-term agreements in the latest AMP7 round of spending including Severn Trent’s £2.3 billion water and waste water framework (Project ID: 17318750).
Power
The group has wide experience in electricity services, providing a one-stop shop in the management, design, installation and maintenance of electrical HV/LV solutions in transmission and distribution. Murphy works for EDF Energy and CE Electric and is building a £100 million liquid natural gas plant on the Isle of Grain in Kent for National Grid (Project ID: 22024539).
Tunnels
As a leading tunnelling and underground construction specialist, Murphy works on below and above ground projects and has a wide range of tunnelling technology. The group was involved in the Power Lines Underground (PLUG) Project, for the Olympic Park preparation and has worked on major tunnels for National Grid Transco and EDF Energy including the £62 million phase 2 of the London Power Tunnels scheme (Project ID: 19304223).
Bridges
The group is also involved in bridge reconstruction and new bridges and highways infrastructure and is working on the £235 million Oxford Street District Place Shaping scheme (Project ID: 18341481).
Building & Property Development
The group’s building and property development arm works across the commercial, residential, educational, medical, industrial, retail sectors and on refurbishment projects. It works for a range of public and private sector clients either under a traditional contract, on a `design and build` basis or as works packages on major schemes. Murphy is one of 22 contractors on Catalyst Housing’s £900 million social housing framework and is building the first two phases of the £37 million Padnall Lake residential scheme for joint clients, Be First London and the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham (Project ID: 20347587).
Murphy Homes also designs, develops and manages property developments on behalf of clients as main contractor, joint partner or co-developer. The group also provides unified utility connection solutions for construction projects of all sizes, including housing and commercial developments. Other specialist businesses include a piling company, J M Piling Co., Pipeline Testing Services and a specialist geotechnical business.
Glenigan Data
In the 12 months to Q1 2022, Murphy’s order book totalled £162.2 million (2021: according to Glenigan (2022: £399.8 million), but this total excludes framework agreements and specialist contracting work. In Glenigan’s ranking of the industry’s top 100 contractors, Murphy was placed in 52nd position (2021: 26th)
Glenigan’s research continues to show no sign of planning activity at Murphy Homes.
Conclusion: Big plans?
After a downturn in Murphy’s UK fortunes in 2016 the response was to close the USA business and offload a 50% stake in Australian business Murphy Pipe & Civil to venture capitalists Viburnum and use the proceeds of the sale to realise the company’s existing 10-year plan of growing turnover to £2 billion by 2025.
That corporate restructure was five years ago, and the turnover has leapt by 79% but that target looks increasingly unlikely to be met. The management had envisaged consolidation producing an environment with five major contractors turning over £5 billion a year.
That scenario began to materialise in early 2018, when Carillion went bust and Murphy was able to swoop and acquire the failed contractor’s power framework business. This brought 22 staff but also lucrative long-term work with an existing customer in National Grid on its transmission network, which is worth hundreds of millions of pounds in the long term.
The advent of the Covid-19 pandemic was certainly outside the remit of any business plan, but the group has bounced back from the worst of the pandemic and is growing on all key measures.
The focus on civil engineering has lessened slightly but the risk profile has also reduced as the group took on lower value projects. In the 12 months to Q1 2022, 74% of the order book by value was in civil engineering projects and the balance in the building sector (2021: 87% civil engineering/23% /building). The biggest value project won in this period was the £100 million LNG plant in Kent and the value of the average contract awarded fell to £14.7 million (2021: £16.0 million).
The UK provides the bulk of revenue but overseas income is growing at a faster rate. In the UK, turnover edged up to £961.0 million (2020: £946.2 million) but revenue form the rest of the world virtually doubled to £308.9 million (2020: £167.5 million).
Murphy continues to invest in staff and the global headcount increased to 3,449 people (2020: 3,579), which pushed the wage bill up to £192.5 million (2020: £163.5 million). As Murphy Group fared better than many rivals during the down-turn, cash at the bank and in hand increased to £203.7 million (2020: £169.9 million), net assets increased by 20% to £248.6 million (2020: £206.6 million) and the group’s own long-term order book is put at £2.2 billion.
Glenigan’s data suggests that contract awards have fallen and the group”s ambitious target looks unlikely to be met but Murphy is in a healthy position to expand, albeit perhaps at a slower rate than expected.
How to win work with Murphy Group
Murphy puts a premium on high quality and on delivering projects and services on time and as specified with zero defects. Its workforce is supported by an Integrated Management System (IMS), which aims to ensure that all work is done in a planned, methodical, efficient and transparent way and is certified to ISO 9001:2008.
All its key processes, from tendering to award of contract, design management, environmental, health & safety, commercial management, project execution, handover and maintenance, fall within the management system.
A group quality policy and group BS EN ISO 9001 2008 is available from its website. Details on Murphy’s supply chain can be found here.
Key Murphy Group Procurement Contacts include:
Head of procurement – Jason Chadwick
jasonchadwick@murphygroup.co.uk
Tel: 020-7267-4366
Supply chain manager – James Conboye
jamesconboye@murphygroup.co.uk
Tel: 020-7267-4366