Costain Group

Costain Group
Costain Group plc
Type Public limited company
(LSECOST)
Industry Construction, Civil engineering
Founded 1865
Headquarters Maidenhead, United Kingdom
Key people David Allvey, Chairman
Andrew Wyllie, CEO
Revenue £1,022.5 million (2010)[1]
Operating income £29.4 million (2010)[1]
Net income £23.1 million (2010)[1]
Employees 3,622 (2007)
Website www.costain.com

Costain Group plc is a British construction and civil engineering company headquartered in Maidenhead. It was part of the original Channel Tunnel consortium and is involved in Private Finance Initiative projects.

Contents

History

The business was founded in 1865 when Richard Costain and his future brother-in-law, Richard Kneen, left the Isle of Man and moved to Liverpool as jobbing builders. The partnership lasted until 1888 when Richard Kneen left and Richard Costain's three sons (Richard, William and John) joined him.[2] By the time of the First War, Costain had expanded through Lancashire and into south Wales where it built houses for munitions workers.[3] After the First War, Costain began to develop housing estates in Liverpool on its own account, primarily to offer continuity of employment to its workforce.[4] With housing sites in Liverpool in short supply, Richard Costain sent his son William down to London to find new sites. He purchased the Walton Heath Land Company and in 1923 the separate business of Richard Costain & Sons was formed. Several executive estates in the Croydon area were developed in the mid 1920s. In 1929 William died: the other two brothers remained in Liverpool and William’s son, Richard Rylands Costain, was sent to run the London Company. Under him, Richard Costain & Sons expanded its housing building large estates all around London, the largest being a site for 7,500 homes in South Hornchurch, started in 1934. Perhaps the best-known development of all was Dolphin Square completed in 1937.[2] In 1933 the London-based Richard Costain was floated on the London Stock Exchange; the Liverpool business was not part of the flotation. By then, Costain had completed over 4,000 houses in the London area, some at prices up to £4,000.[5] Costain continued to expand its private housebuilding and it was described as "one of the largest speculative housebuilders and estate developers in this country before the war."[6]

Following the flotation, Costain moved into civil engineering and worked first on the Trans-Iranian Railway and then at Abadan, Iran for BP. Losses on the railway, on Beckton sewage works and the costs of Dolphin Square caused financial problems, and Costain had to look for alternative funds when Barclays withdrew its overdraft facilities.[4]

The Second War saw Costain carrying out extensive military work including airfields and ordinance factories, and it was one of the contractors on the Mulberry Harbour project. After the War, building controls precluded any substantial return to private housebuilding and Costain took its wartime construction expertise overseas: by the mid-1950s as much as 60% of turnover was overseas. Some small estate development was undertaken but it was not until the acquisition of the Rostance Group of Nottingham in 1962 that private housebuilding resumed on any scale. Helped also by the acquisition of the Blackpool firm of R Fielding in 1969, Costain was building around 1,000 houses a year by the early 1970s.[2]

The substantially increased revenues that accrued to the oil-producing states led to a construction boom in the middle east in the 1970s. Costain was a major beneficiary, particularly in the Emirates, and within a decade profits increased from little more than £1m a year to £47m. In the face of such overseas largesse, domestic housing activity declined. In the 1980s, recognising that exceptional middle east profits could not continue, Costain sought to redeploy its extensive cash balances into coal mining, international housing and commercial property. However, over-expansion in the late 1980s led to high gearing just as international markets were turning down, problems exacerbated by a disaster in Costain’s American coal mine. Substantial losses were incurred in the early 1990s and asset sales followed leaving Costain as a predominantly construction-oriented business.[2]

Structure

Costain's activities are organised into three areas: Environment (water, marine, waste, education, health & retail), Infrastructure (highways, rail, nuclear, tunnelling & airports), and Energy & Process.[7] This replaces the four former divisions that made up the company: Civil Engineering, Building, COGAP & International.

Costain Energy & Process is the division responsible for the engineering and construction of energy-sector based projects. Based in Manchester, it is active in Natural Gas Storage activities in the UK.

Major projects

The Tsing Ma Bridge built by a Joint Venture involving Costain

Projects undertaken by or involving the Company have included the Dolphin Square apartments in London completed in 1937,[3] a section of the Trans-Iranian Railway completed in 1939,[8] Dubai International Airport completed in 1960,[9] the Deep Water Harbour at Bridgetown, Barbados completed in 1961,[10] the Thames Barrier completed in 1984,[11] the Channel Tunnel completed in 1994,[12] the Tsing Ma Bridge in Hong Kong completed in 1997,[13] the Cardiff Bay Barrage completed in 1999[14] and the King's Cross Western Ticketing Hall completed in 2006.[15]

RoSPA award

In 2007, RoSPA named Costain as the number one company (out of 1,400) for safe practices at work and awarded the company the Sir George Earle trophy.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b c Preliminary Results 2010
  2. ^ a b c d Wellings, Fred: Dictionary of British Housebuilders (2006) Troubador. ISBN 978-0-9552965-0-5
  3. ^ a b Norman Kipping, “Costain, Sir Richard Rylandes (1902–1966),” rev., in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison (Oxford: OUP, 2004), (accessed March 7, 2007).
  4. ^ a b Costain, Albert Reflections 1987
  5. ^ Company Prospectus 1933
  6. ^ Bowley, Marion The British Building Industry, 1966
  7. ^ Structure chart
  8. ^ Costain history
  9. ^ Costain: Did you know? - item 27
  10. ^ Deep Water at Bridgetown - Film by Richard Costain Ltd British Film Institute, 1961
  11. ^ Environment Agency
  12. ^ Channel Tunnel on Structurae database
  13. ^ Asia Rooms
  14. ^ Cardiff Bay Barrage Report
  15. ^ New Western Ticket Hall opens
  16. ^ RoSPA press release

External links



Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Costain — The Manx name Costain derives from Thorstein and is of Viking (Norse) origin. Theoretically every Costain in the world is related because the name comes from just one clan that established itself on the IoM around 1100 years ago. So Costain (the… …   Wikipedia

  • MITIE Group — PLC Type Public (LSE: MTO) Industry Facilities Managemen …   Wikipedia

  • Morgan Sindall Group — plc Type Public (LSE: MGNS) Industry Cons …   Wikipedia

  • Clugston Group — Type Private Industry Construction Founded 1937 Headquarters …   Wikipedia

  • Construction Clients' Group — The Construction Clients Group is a United Kingdom construction organisation representing major clients of the construction industry. It represents the views of clients to the Strategic Forum for Construction. Its members includes public and… …   Wikipedia

  • Dome of Discovery — Skylon and the Dome of Discovery The Dome of Discovery was a temporary building designed by architect Ralph Tubbs for the Festival of Britain celebrations which took place on London s South Bank in 1951. The consulting engineers were Freeman Fox… …   Wikipedia

  • Battersea Park railway station — Infobox London station name = Battersea Park caption = Battersea Park railway station manager = Southern zone = 2 locale = Battersea railcode=BAK borough = London Borough of Wandsworth start= 1 May 1867 platforms= 4 railexits0405=0.947… …   Wikipedia

  • Lamaload Reservoir — Infobox lake lake name = Lamaload Reservoir image lake = Lamaload.jpg caption lake = Reservoir and dam image bathymetry = caption bathymetry = location = Cheshire coords = coord|53.27198|N|2.04345|W|region:GB type:waterbody source:enwiki… …   Wikipedia

  • Port of Bridgetown — Gatehouse for the Deep Water Harbour from the Princess Alice Highway. (c.a. November 2000) Location Country …   Wikipedia

  • Дубай (аэропорт) — Международный аэропорт Дубай مطار دبي الدولي …   Википедия

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”