With almost four decades in the construction industry, including 15 at board level, Craig Tatton knows a thing or two about what works \u2013 and what doesn\u2019t. As a former rugby wing forward or flanker, Tatton is used to being quick and decisive. And that\u2019s exactly how he feels Tilbury Douglas now fits into the construction industry next to the giant tier one front-row players.<\/p>\n
Tatton has been at the helm of the new-look Tilbury Douglas for a year now, having joined in 2017 as managing director of UK building during the company\u2019s final years in its Interserve incarnation. In 2022, in the run-up to the company\u2019s relaunch as a slimmer entity under its old name, he became chief operating officer. Two years later he would take over from Paul Gandy as chief executive.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just gently growing, sensibly growing and making sure that we\u2019re concentrating on the bottom line and cash generation\u201d<\/p>\n
Craig Tatton, Tilbury Douglas<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Tatton tells Construction News<\/em> he is very happy that the firm is not the behemoth it once was. \u201cI do think it\u2019s an advantage for us,\u201d he says. \u201cI suppose from when [the company] was Interserve, we\u2019ve shrunk a little bit. We are growing sensibly, but we can make decisions a lot quicker. It\u2019s a very short line from the project manager to me \u2013 shorter than it would be in one of [the larger] companies. We\u2019ve got our governance framework that everybody understands, and they know what decisions they can make, but they know they can escalate it quickly and you can get hold of me very quickly if need be. There are regional directors and managing directors that are empowered to make the right decisions as well, but if it needs to come to me, it\u2019ll come to me quickly and we\u2019ll make a decision. That does make us more nimble, more flexible and more responsive to what our customers want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Corporate history is littered with names that have fallen by the wayside \u2013 think Kodak, Blockbuster or Pan Am. Others such as Apple have spent periods flirting with bankruptcy, only to recover in spectacular form.<\/p>\n
Tilbury Douglas is a little different. Like Marks & Spencer, Lever Brothers (which went on to become Unilever) and Nationwide Building Society, it can trace its roots back to 1884, when brothers Edmund and Augustus Hughes formed the London and Tilbury Lighterage Company, which specialised in transferring cargo between vessels. In the late 1930s, Sir Robert McCallum Douglas founded the Douglas Group, of which R.M. Douglas Construction was a key subsidiary. In 1991, the two got together and the new merged entity of Tilbury Douglas was born.<\/p>\n
However, in 2001 Tilbury Douglas underwent not only a name change, but a switch in business focus. The newly branded Interserve company switched its focus to maintenance and facilities management. But by 2019, Interserve was running into problems \u2013 an acquisitions programme had led to high debt levels, a series of energy-from-waste contracts turned out to be more trouble than they were worth, and the shareholders rejected a debt-for-equity swap that was intended to make the financial position better.<\/p>\n
Back to the future<\/h3>\n
After Interserve went into administration in March 2019, its facilities management business was sold to Mitie and its scaffolding subsidiary RMD Kwikform was snapped up by France\u2019s Altrad. But by March 2021, Interserve resurrected the Tilbury Douglas brand for its construction and engineering services arms, and in June the following year, Tilbury Douglas took flight from the ashes of Interserve Group to become a slightly smaller construction contracting company.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though we operate across the whole of Britain, we\u2019re very regional and we have very regional supply chains\u201d<\/p>\n
Craig Tatton, Tilbury Douglas<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n
After steadying the ship during his five-year tenure from 2019, Paul Gandy left Tilbury Douglas saying it had a \u201cgolden opportunity\u201d. Grasping it, via a five-year plan, was one of Tatton\u2019s first acts as chief executive. The strategy targets \u201csensible and steady growth\u201d by developing sectors Tilbury Douglas already operates in health, education, justice and defence. But it\u2019s also looking for opportunities to expand into complementary areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve done student accommodation, and we do a lot of health,\u201d Tatton says. \u201cSo we\u2019re looking at how we can use those in the care sector \u2013 we\u2019re looking at the older people independent living [sector], for example. So we\u2019re just gently growing, sensibly growing and making sure that we\u2019re concentrating on the bottom line and cash generation. We don\u2019t do development, and we don\u2019t do housing \u2013 this is building.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s not just building \u2013 Tilbury Douglas also does fit-out and has its own mechanical and electrical (M&E) arm. The combination has given rise to the company\u2019s \u2018Integrated Working Model\u2019, aimed at allowing teams to work together to \u201cdeliver what the client ultimately wants, which is a better product, better delivery, and add a bit more value than you would normally do by just subcontracting everything\u201d, Tatton says.<\/p>\n
The lessons from the problematic and high-risk energy-from-waste contracts that in part caused the collapse of Interserve have prompted the resurrected Tilbury Douglas to focus on building schools, hospitals and prisons.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the core of the business,\u201d says Tatton. \u201c[Government contracts] are lower risk, because you will get paid. We understand those projects, we understand those contract forms, we understand those frameworks, and we\u2019re very good at delivering those products. At heart, we\u2019re a frameworks business, so even the work that we\u2019re talking about that isn\u2019t part of the public sector, such as water, those are all frameworks.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe opportunities are coming through to us now to just nudge into a few new sectors\u201d<\/p>\n
Craig Tatton, Tilbury Douglas<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Minimising risk is also an important factor in the company\u2019s structure and its relationship with its supply chain. Regionalisation is key, because it means any issues can be addressed swiftly at the local level before they become big problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though we operate across the whole of Britain, we\u2019re very regional and we have very regional supply chains,\u201d Tatton says. \u201cOur supply chains are good. We track all the insolvencies, for example. We\u2019ve had hardly any insolvencies in our supply chain. And we make sure we pay [our suppliers] – the big thing for us is making sure they get paid promptly and fairly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Solid financials<\/h3>\n
Financially speaking, Tatton says Tilbury Douglas is in a solid position. It posted a pre-tax profit of \u00a38.2m from revenue of \u00a3518.6m in the year to 31 December 2024, generating a margin of 1.6 per cent \u2013 an improvement on the previous year\u2019s 0.6 per cent. At the end of last year, the company was debt free and had a strong cash position of \u00a335m, up from \u00a330m in 2023. This year tells a similar story. \u201cWe\u2019re still debt free and we\u2019ve got a little bit more cash, because we\u2019ve been making a bit more profit and we retain all our profits,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ll have a slightly better position at [2025] year-end and a better balance sheet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tatton is a big advocate of two-stage contracting and sees it as a good way to mitigate risk, because he says contractor and client can work together \u201crather than just heading off into a project at short notice and not really know whether you\u2019ve boxed off all the risk\u201d. The contracting landscape is a lot different today from when he joined the industry, he adds when it was all \u201csingle stage and lump sums\u201d and where it could be \u201cadversarial and not very productive as a result. I would say we have moved away from that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Likewise, effective communication is the only way for the contractor to make sure the client sees the value they\u2019re getting, Tatton says. \u201cThat\u2019s down to us to explain what we\u2019re doing and to have a series of gateways so they [are not in a position] where they don\u2019t hear anything for 12 months and then they\u2019re told \u2018here\u2019s a bill\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, it was issues such as supply chain disruptions, legacy fixed-price contracts and arguably a lack of flexibility that led to the collapse of ISG last year, the aftershocks of which are still being felt throughout the construction industry.<\/p>\n
While Tilbury Douglas did pick up some work in schools and prisons in the wake of ISG\u2019s collapse, the saga struck a personal note with Tatton. Before joining Interserve in 2017, Tatton was chief operating officer at Bouygues UK, which he joined three years earlier from Willmott Dixon. He was actually only with Willmott Dixon for a few months in 2014. For the eight years preceding that, he was UK construction managing director at ISG.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were lots of rumours [that ISG would be sold], and I think probably their expectation and our hope was that they had got a solution to it,\u201d he says of ISG\u2019s fall. \u201cBut if you read the press, it seems that it just didn\u2019t quite get over the line at the end. But for me, I\u2019d worked there for eight years, so I thought it was a bit of a shame.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Tatton, learning from the ISG debacle is important for the industry, but he fears the lessons may not stick, given it was not the first time such a collapse had happened. \u201cYou wonder about corporate memories, don\u2019t you?\u201d he says. \u201cAnd whether the people are still remembering those lessons 10 or 15 years from now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking back, Tatton feels the role of project manager has changed significantly over the course of his career. \u201cIf I look at when I was a project manager and what that role required to what it requires now, it is different,\u201d he tells CN<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about building the building \u2013 it is about delivering the social value; it is about managing more third-party interfaces than you used to have to do. It was always a good role, but I think it\u2019s even more exciting now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exciting is how Tatton sees Tilbury Douglas\u2019s future. The former rugby loose forward runs a tight-knit operation with growth ambitious that are both ambitious and stable. The emphasis is on government contracts, but there is also a drive into the private sector, especially the water industry. \u201cWe do think the opportunities are coming through to us now to just nudge into a few new sectors and a few new customers who are like-minded,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
While those new customers will tend to be what Tatton calls \u201cvery blue-chip assured clients\u201d, generally speaking, the business model at Tilbury Douglas is one of good pace on a steady course.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not looking to leap in with the people who don\u2019t value what we do and aren\u2019t stable,\u201d Tatton says. \u201cWe had a real spell when we went through some really difficult times and most of the people who went through that are still here and having a better time now. So we want to just keep going on that path.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nCraig Tatton\u2019s CV<\/h3>\n
2024 to present:<\/strong> Chief executive, Tilbury Douglas
\n2017-2024:<\/strong> Chief operating officer, Tilbury Douglas
\n2014-2017:<\/strong> Chief operating officer, Bouygues UK
\n2013-2014:<\/strong> Managing director, Willmott Dixon
\n2005-2013:<\/strong> Managing director, ISG
\n2002-2005:<\/strong> Major projects director, Miller Group
\n1986-2002:<\/strong> Operations manager, Laing O\u2019Rourke<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With almost four decades in the construction industry, including 15 at board level, Craig Tatton knows a thing or two about what works \u2013 and what doesn\u2019t. As a former rugby wing forward or flanker, Tatton is used to being quick and decisive. And that\u2019s exactly how he feels Tilbury Douglas now fits into the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155754,"featured_media":531498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79553,559],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-531481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-long-reads"],"yoast_head":"\n
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