More than 15 senior members of the former Buckingham Group have joined Strabag’s growing UK business to establish a new building unit.
Buckingham collapsed into administration earlier this month, resulting in the redundancy of about 500 staff. Kier saved 180 jobs after buying the company’s rail business for £9.6m.
The appointments have accelerated Strabag UK’s plans to enter the building sector by more than a year. The Austrian contractor, which turned over £14.7bn last year, is best known in the UK for its now-paused work on tunnelling to Euston in a joint venture with Costain and Skanska.
Strabag said its new business unit would enable it to replicate its success in mainland Europe and across the world to provide end-to-end capability services (finance, design, construction and fit-out) for UK customers.
It is anticipated that the new business will carry out the construction of light industrial and logistic centres, data centres, advanced manufacturing facilities and commercial developments.
Strabag UK joint managing directors Simon Wild and Andy Dixon said in a statement: “We have been looking to expand the UK business in this area, and to be able to recruit such a talented pool of staff immediately was an opportunity we could not miss.
“We believe that Strabag group’s financial stability, combined with its extensive experience, will be extremely attractive to future UK customers.”
Ian Burford, the newly appointed director of the new unit, added: “My ex-colleagues from Buckingham Group are thrilled to be joining Strabag UK. To be part of such a major international company at such an exciting time, where the UK business is growing from strength to strength, is a fantastic opportunity.”
Strabag UK has established a new office in Solihull, near Birmingham, to ensure continuity for the staff joining and to further expand its geographical presence in the UK.