Bouygues UK has announced a shake-up aimed at integrating its recent acquisitions into its overall management structure while retaining the different brand identities of Warings, Thomas Vale and Leadbitter Group.
In 2007, Bouygues Batiment International purchased Warings, then in early 2011 it purchased a 51% shareholding in the Leadbitter Group, which incorporated sub-brand Denne. In 2012, Bouygues acquired Midlands-based Thomas Vale as well as the remaining 49% of the Leadbitter Group.
The combined activities of Bouygues UK now total £750 m in turnover, around 130 sites and the employment of approximately 1700 people.
Bouygues UK has now finalised what it calls a “market facing structure”, to integrate the skills and expertise of businesses it has acquired with those of its existing UK operations. Under executive chairman Madani Sow, Bouygues UK will operate under four management units: Bouygues Development; Construction; Housing; and Thomas Vale.
Both the Construction and Housing Management units combine the operations of Warings, Leadbitter and Denne with those that already existed in Bouygues UK. But the acquired businesses will continue to trade as their legal registered entities, and their logos will be used on hoardings and in other communications.
A company spokeswoman said: “Bouygues acquired these operations with their brands and brand equity, which we want to retain. But we also want to strengthen the Bouygues UK brand across the country.
“So you will see their brands on the hoardings, but now you will also see the Bouygues UK brand alongside. The brand is well known in London, but we want to raise the profile across the country.”
Bouygues Development will be headed up by Nicolas Guérin as managing director, a role he will continue to undertake in the new structure.
The Construction Management Unit is led by Lionel Christolomme as managing director, who has been with the group since 1991 and been a Bouygues UK executive board member since 2007. Operating across four UK regions – London & South East, Western, Central South and Central North – the Construction Management Unit’s focus is on delivering schemes across the private sector – commercial, leisure and luxury residential and in the public sector (including PPPs), predominantly in healthcare and education, working with a variety of investors, developers and end-user clients.
The Housing Management Unit is led by Paul Abson as managing director. Abson joined Bouygues UK in 2012, following the acquisition of the Leadbitter Group where he was deputy CEO. Operating across three UK regions – Central, London, and the South East – the Housing Management Unit’s market focus is residential and mixed tenure developments, care and extra care facilities and student accommodation.
Headed up by managing director Tony Hyde, Thomas Vale operates in a clearly defined area of the country. Under the new structure, Thomas Vale will operate as a specific Management Unit within Bouygues UK.
Sow commented: “Following the completion of the acquisitions and particularly those that were undertaken in 2012, we have spent the last 12 months integrating our businesses. This integration is going well and I now feel the time is right to announce a new structure.
“When defining our structure and recognising that the businesses need to continue to trade under their legal entities, I wanted to ensure that we provided clarity to the market. We have done this by integrating the skills and expertise of the businesses we have across the UK. Equally important is that we raise the profile of Bouygues UK across the country and over the coming months you will see we are doing this by creating stronger visual links to the Bouygues UK brand and name throughout our business.
“In addition, as a national business, I wanted to have a clearly defined regional network of operations to fully understand the local areas in which we operate, delivering the needs of our customers in a responsible way and to enhance the quality of the built environment for the communities in which we work.”
