Winvic Construction director Danny Cross tells CM how the company has been getting ready for this galloping market over the past 18 months.
Winvic Construction is now looking to build data centres as its fourth core sector on top of its established three: industrial and logistics; multi-room; and civils and infrastructure.
It’s an eye-catching move. Surging demand for AI and cloud computing has made data centres a rare growth sector in UK construction.
The BBC reports that around 100 are currently in the pipeline, many developed by US tech giants and investment firms.
They include a £10bn AI data centre campus in Blyth, near Newcastle, for the investment and wealth management company Blackstone Group.
It will have 10 halls covering some 133 acres. Northumberland County Council approved its first five phases in December, and Blackstone subsidiary QTS says it plans to start building this year.
Founded in 2001, Winvic has spent the last quarter-century building a name for itself as the UK’s top ‘shed specialist’, building warehouses and mega-sheds and fitting them out with everything from complex material handling equipment to precision temperature-control systems.
It believes data centres, although more technically complex, are a logical progression.
From sheds to data centres
18-year company veteran Danny Cross, director and now head of data centre delivery, contributed to the firm’s diversification into the multi-room (student and build-to-rent accommodation) and civils and infrastructure sectors over the past nine years.
He started investigating the potential of the data centre market 18 months ago, getting to know clients’ plans and requirements and retooling the company’s own supply chain to get ready.
“One of the biggest takeaways from our market engagement was that Winvic would be more than capable of doing work in this sector, but that we needed a reputable MEP supply chain,” Cross told CM.
Structured due diligence
“So, we carried out structured due diligence on all tier-one MEP firms operating in the UK, some of which operate in Europe and beyond, that have experience working with some of the clients we’ve engaged with, that have the same values we have as a business, a similar structure and size, and the capacity and appetite to work with us.
“We invited them to come and present at our offices and we visited their sites. Everyone I engaged with – eight, maybe more – wanted to work with Winvic.”
Winvic identified new MEP partners from that process, primarily UK-based, but the company will engage with others that have experience with data centre clients.
“We wouldn’t work with a contractor on a complex scheme if they hadn’t already delivered for that client previously,” he said.
“It’s about getting the right people for the job, and how they perform during the tender process, how they support us. It sets the tone for how they will approach and potentially deliver the work.”
Incumbent supply chain
Cross then led a review into Winvic’s incumbent supply chain, which includes many work-package capabilities that already complement data centre work.
“We reviewed all of them to cover their capacity, their appetite, resource needs and alignment with our data centre requirements. Many were active in data centres already, many were looking to get into the sector, and some were not interested and preferred to stick with the sectors we contract with them in already,” said Cross.
And finally, he’s been building the team to lead the new business unit, which was “growing as we speak”, he said.
‘Completely new sector for Winvic’
Cross said he has had to widen clients’ and stakeholders’ perceptions of all that Winvic can do. Aligning procurement, governance and risk processes to meet standards needed for data centres is a challenge, but one he relishes.
“From a business point of view, it’s the opportunity to build and lead a completely new sector for Winvic, with its own identity and capability and a long-term growth trajectory,” he said.
Cross said the company was now actively tendering projects. They can now see a healthy pipeline of work and have confirmed positions on future tenders. Meanwhile, Winvic’s top industrial logistics clients were all pursuing the data centre market, he added.
“They’ll want to work with trusted contractors, and we’ve been doing so with most of them for 25 years,” he said.
“We’ve got to partner with the right people and go into this with our eyes open, make sure we’re doing the right things to be ready as opposed to trying to learn as we go because that doesn’t work. There’s too much risk for everyone.”
