Alfred McAlpine - History

History

Alfred McAlpine was one of the sons of 'Concrete' Bob McAlpine and he ran the operations of Sir Robert McAlpine in the north west of England. In 1935, following the death of Sir Robert and his eldest son, Alfred ran the north west independently, although the legal separation was not completed until 1940, when Sir Alfred McAlpine & Son was formed. Under a non-compete agreement with its former parent company, Sir Alfred McAlpine confined itself to civil engineering and to the north west of England.

After the death of its founder, his son Jimmie McAlpine became chairman. The company floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1958 under the name Marchwiel Holdings, only changing its public name to Alfred McAlpine PLC in 1985. This followed the decision in 1983 to end the non-compete agreement with Robert McAlpine allowing the firm to expand geographically.

McAlpine's status as a civil engineer was enhanced during the 1960s by its participation in the motorway building programme and the company became one of the country's leading civil engineers. There had been some limited diversification, including the purchase of Penrhyn Quarry, the country's largest slate works. As the civil engineering market declined in the 1970s, McAlpine sought to diversify further into private housebuilding. Acquisitions included Price Brothers in 1978; Frank Sanderson's Finlas in 1982; and Canberra in 1988. Investments had also been made in the US housing industry. By the end of the 1980s, private housebuilding was contributing the major part of group profits.

In 1985, Jimmie retired, and handed over chairmanship of the company to his son Robert James "Bobby" McAlpine. In 1991 Bobby brought in an outside chief executive, resigning as chairman in 1992, by which time the family no longer owned a controlling shareholding. Under new management, there was further concentration on private housebuilding, including the acquisition of Raine Industries. By the late 1990s, McAlpine was building over 4,000 houses a year and was one of the industry’s top ten. However, there was increasing speculation over the future of the Company and, in 2001, it sold its housebuilding operations to George Wimpey. In 2001, it acquired Kennedy Utility Management for £52m. In 2002, it acquired Stiell, a facilities management and information technology network systems business, for £85m. In February 2008, Carillion acquired Alfred McAlpine for £572m.