NW Nuclear and waste contracts boost Costain

CONTRACT wins in the North West, including Greater Manchester’s huge waste disposal PFI scheme and a decommissioning project at Sellafield helped construction and engineering company Costain to achieve ‘excellent’ results.

The Berkshire company said the region is of increasing performance, particularly the nuclear sector, and that it now employs nearly 1,000 people in the North West.

A large number are based at Styal Road, Wythenshawe, which is the home to the divisional headquarters of Costain’s nuclear and energy process division.

During 2009 revenue climbed past £1bn for the first time in 16 years as profit from operations rose 14% to £20.8m.

The £397m Greater Manchester waste project, a contract on the EVAP D scheme at Sellafield and work with United Utilities, wiorth £180m helped the group declare a record order book of £2.6bn, up 30% on the previous year.

Finance director Tony Bickerstaff told TheBusinessDesk.com: “Given the economic conditions we think this is an excellent result. We have launched the next phase of our strategy, which focused our business on growth sectors of infrastructure, environment and energy process.

“We’ve got key skills and capabilities in areas such as nuclear that not many others have. The size of the order book gives us great visibility and confidence despite uncertainty in the market place.”