C O M P A N Y O V E R V I E W
The Joseph Gallagher Group
expands into Middle-East after shrewd acquisitions Written by: Joel Levy Produced by: Richard Durrant
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THE JOSEPH GALLAGHER GROUP
The ambitious company is forging a reputation for quality work across the region after adding several complementary businesses to strengthen and diversify its offering
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pecialist civil engineering contractor Joseph Gallagher is taking its ambitions to the next level after strengthening and expanding its capabilities with key acquisitions in recent years and entering the booming MiddleEast. The Group has enhanced its services via the shrewd acquisition of four companies: crawler crane specialist N.R.C. Plant Ltd; hired tunnelling equipment expert Specialist Plant Associates; Iseki Microtunnelling; and Johnston Trenchless Solutions. The latter pair have allowed the company not only to expand northward from its Orsett, Essex base, but has opened a path to new opportunities further afield. Middle-East Tunnelling Director Richard Dexter said: “We have in the last four years, through the acquisition of Iseki and Johnston, started business in the Middle-East and now have offices in Bahrain and Kuwait. We operate up and down the GCC. Half the Iseki machine fleet is kept in the Middle-East and can be quickly brought back to the UK if required. “The region has a massively growing population and huge oil and gas reserves. We do a lot of microtunnelling in oil and gas pipes, road crossings for the oil and gas industry, and with a growing population and a need to house and utility these people there’s significant capital
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Iseki Micro Tunnelling: The fleet of microtunnelling equipment has installed over 80km of finished pipeline, most of it operated by the company’s own operators
investment in drainage. “With the amount of building development going on there is the potential to forge ahead and build a reputation there, and we are doing this now.” In a challenging market to break into, reputation counts, and with the company now approved in Bahrain as a tunnelling and microtunnelling contractor, it can bid with clients directly for work, and in the past four years, Joseph Gallagher has already forged a positive image. While largely working as a subcontractor for larger builders, Gallagher’s ambitious management are keen to win more work as lead contractor. With more than three decades experience, it has the skills to do so. Dexter said: “We have been principal contractor on several occasions but a ratio of
A typical project, sinking a shaft onsite in Kuwait
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+44 (0) 1302 329911 | mail@alanauld.co.uk | www.alanauld.co.uk
Recent projects Green Park Underground Station Upgrade – Temporary works & site setup logistics Dorchester Hotel Annex Utilities Tunnel – Detailed design of tunnel and access shafts Connaught Tunnel, Crossrail Project Tunnel widening temporary works & construction sequencing Kilroot Salt Mine Detailed design of 1200m long, 7m diameter, 1200m long shotcrete lined access decline
Underground Design and Technical Support Specialists Alan Auld Engineering has worked with the Joseph Gallagher Group on many complex underground construction projects, providing engineering support from tender concept through to project completion. In addition to tunnel design we are specialists in underground construction sequencing and temporary works, including tunnel worksite logistics.
The company was formed in 1958 specialising in fabrication of bespoke steelwork and has progressed into the leading designer and manufacturer of purpose built steel formwork. Clients include most major contractors in the UK and Ireland. Projects include tunnel and shaft linings, sea defences, windfarm bases, bridge piers, columns, curved & straight walls, sewage tanks and precast moulds etc. Our CNC manufacturing equipment ensures the highest standards of quality and accuracy.
Dorchester Hotel Service Tunnel, London
Whitelee Wind Farm, Scotland
Bridge Pier, Dublin
Shaft Lining, Norfolk
Special Formwork A division of Mercian Weldcraft Ltd Stubbers Green Rd Aldridge W Midlands WS9 8BN
Fleetwood WWTW
Forth Bridge Columns
Tel: 01922 451909 Fax: 01922 454520
E-mail wdm@formwork.co.uk
Video www.formwork.co.uk/video
Website www.formwork.co.uk Lyme Regis Sea Defences
THE JOSEPH GALLAGHER GROUP 5:1 as a subcontractor. As our turnover hopefully increases to the £100m bracket over the next five years we will pick up more roles as principal contractor. “The duration of our contracts over the last 10 years has increased from one-to-two months to one-to-two years, allowing us to attract and retain staff better because they become more settled and we can offer more stable positions.” Dexter believes the acquired companies strongly complement each other, and that with their expansion of Joseph Gallagher’s capabilities, the decision to take on the existing liabilities of the Johnston business - both its equipment and skilled workforce – has been justified. “We saw synergies in the business, so we could take on the roles played in-house without any additional costs, which reduced the costbase of the company. We already had significant space for equipment and a head office and were able to reduce the office space costs. “The company had some exceedingly good employees and we could integrate the business they had with our existing business and our previous acquisition of Iseki Microtunnelling and our desire to make inroads into the Midlands and northern England.” Gaining Johnston’s directional drilling arm, equipment it had previously lacked, also gave Gallagher directional drilling and auger boring capability, where it had previously had to subcontract.
CONSTRUCTION
Key Personnel
Joseph Gallagher Group Chairman 40 + years experience tunnelling & shaft sinking as Miner, Lead Miner and Foreman for most of the UKs major tunnelling contractors. Founder Joseph Gallagher Ltd, had involvement in almost every major UK tunnelling project as Plant Labour or subcontract suppliers. Helped expand the business into RC frame construction which now forms 40% of turnover.
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JOSEPH GALLAGAR
Launch rings
“We bring a variety of options to the table that many don’t, including very high regard to health and safety, a large engineering input, and an experienced tunnelling workforce” – Richard Dexter, Tunnelling Director, The Joseph Gallagher Group Limited 8
History These recent developments are just the latest step of a 32-year history. Eponymous founder Gallagher began his own company in 1982 after working for years as lead-miner and foreman for various large contractors. As the new venture grew, the company won its first major contract on the DLR Bank Station project in the late 1980s. Successful completion of the Bank extension to the Docklands light railway laid the foundation of the Group’s reputation for competitive pricing and programme-achievement. True to its background, the company has retained its core activities, including shaft sinking and specialist groundworks, while also expanding into all types of civil engineering and construction, like spray concrete and microtunnelling.
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Projects Boasting a comprehensive set of skills in ground excavation, Joseph Gallagher remains involved in large-scale projects in the capital, including for Crossrail, for which it created five grout shafts at Bond Street C411 for Costain-Skanska, and the Connaught tunnel section of the Connaught passage for Taylor-Woodrow, a contract worth over £6 million. It is still working on the C360 Costain-Skanska Mile-End and Eleanor Street contract worth circa £10m. Elsewhere, for the London Underground, Gallagher is building the Bond Street station upgrade for Costain-Laing O’Rourke for £15m and working on the National Grid London Power Tunnels for Costain-Skanska, valued at £20m over three years. Another specialist area and key part of the business is Gallagher’s exceptional deep basement and zero pile work for private property developers working on multi-storey housing in central London. Gallagher has also performed strongly in the mining sector for a decade, successfully delivering multiple projects for various clients, including a new mine in County Monaghan, Ireland in 2006 for a British Gypsum subsidiary. The Group also recently completed a 1.2 kilometre, eight-metre tunnel for a private mine in Northern Ireland, demonstrating its specialist capabilities in design and construction of mine access tunnels.
Key Personnel
Richard Dexter Tunnelling Director 30 years experience tunnelling and shaft sinking for Cairo wastewater, Channel Tunnel, Jubilee Line extension, CTRL phases 1 & 2 and now Crossrail 315 & 360
Tunnel Construction for Thameslink 2000
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Precast Concrete Solutions. FP McCann offers a complete range of Tunnel and Shaft solutions including our Smoothbore Shafts from 3.66m - 25m diameter, bespoke cover slabs made to specification, full range of Jacking Pipes from DN450 - DN2400 and Caisson Rings from DN2100 - DN4000.
Contact Stuart Carson on 07850 234136 01455 290780 scarson@fpmccann.co.uk www.fpmccann.co.uk
OSIL are proud to be supporting Doosan Enpure with their Bellozanne project. Our in house process consultants consider the initial odour issue, the current legislative targets, legal compliancy and the individuality of the particular site. We then combine our expert process knowledge and product ranges to deliver the most efficient cost effective solutions.
Odour Services International Limited Unit 14, Morston Court, Kingswood Lakeside, Cannock , Staffordshire, WS11 8JB, UK
T: +44 (0) 1543 506855 E: info@osiltd.com W: www.osiltd.com
Key Personnel Drummond Mine
Gallagher often works collaboratively with clients, performing soft ground tunnelling works before the customer takes over for the hard rock mining development, while Gallagher leaves a small crew on-site for additional drill and blast and other works. This provides a more cost-effective solution to customers’ needs. Adaptability Such adaptability has made the company greater than the sum of its parts. While smaller in an industry of giants, Gallagher has punched above its weight, growing revenues fivefold in a decade from £12m to nearing £60m. Dexter believes the company’s ingenuity and attitude to risk has elevated it above many rivals. He said: “We bring a variety of options to the table that many don’t, including very high regard to health and safety, a large engineering input, and an experienced tunnelling workforce. We can value-engineer a client’s scheme to make our input worth people’s faith in us and bring clever
Steve Harvey Managing Director 30 years experience micro-tunnelling, shaft sinking and utilities, early years microtunnelling and pipe jacking most of the UK contractors in the field. Managing Director 7 years Laserbore Far East, Project Director for Southern Water, Lewes plus multiple other schemes. Operations Director Brown McNicholas, EDF framework Operations Director for Laing
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THE JOSEPH GALLAGHER GROUP
Tunnel construction
Lowering equipment into the tower 12
November 2014
CONSTRUCTION
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Vantage Tower
Staff are all directly employed
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THE JOSEPH GALLAGHER GROUP ideas to the table, such that we can take the client’s original scheme and make it more economic. “We also bring various contract options. Unlike many, we supply labour on a contract basis. For example, half the national grid London power tunnels were labour-supplied for TBM Operations, but the other half was lump-sum work for shaft sinking and spray concrete access tunnels. “There are some who do lump-sum contracting and several labour-only, but very few companies of our size can cope with the risk-profile on modern contracting jobs for high-profile clients.” Opportunities A 500-strong workforce, many of whom have been at the company as long as 20 to 30-plus years, underpins the Group’s achievements, and a growing workload offers greater career opportunities. With health and safety high on the company’s agenda, it is not just employees’ careers that are secure, but those that do choose to move on take away a wealth of on-site experience in various disciplines for a respected company, with the extensive work the Group undertakes. Going forward, there are exciting prospects both for the staff, and the Group itself, as it forges an ever-growing reputation and expands its portfolio and Middle-East strategy. Dexter concluded: “We want to further increase our credibility throughout the various authorities in the Middle-East amongst a lot of competition.
CONSTRUCTION
Company Information INDUSTRY
Construction HEADQUARTERS
Essex, UK FOUNDED
1982 EMPLOYEES
500 REVENUE
£60m PRODUCTS/ SERVICES
Civil Engineering and Construction
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JOSEPH GALLAGAR Joseph Gallagher Limited, Neagron House, Stanford Road, Orsett, Essex, UK Tel. +44 (0) 1375 672 070 Fax. +44 (0) 1375 672 073 headoffice@josephgallagher.co.uk www.josephgallagher.co.uk