Signs of recovery for Hewlett following trio of contract wins

HEWLETT Construction says it is on the road to recovery after scoring a hat-trick of new work recently and opening a third regional office.

The Leeds-based civil engineering firm had a tough start to the year after being placed into the hands of administrators in January. A senior management buyout later saved around 300 jobs ensuring the future of the business and its employees.

The announcement of a new regional office, based in Corby, Northamptonshire, comes as the civil engineering firm picks up additional contracts of work with developer Bela with a combined value of £19m.

Alan Cooper, managing director at Hewlett: “Our work with Bela at Priors Hall in Corby has continued to go well and resulted in additional contracts of work with the developer which means we will be active on site until the end of 2014.

“We have also recently picked-up a contract with Barratt Homes – also at Priors Hall – to start delivering the infrastructure works for the next phase of housing development.

“Taking steps to make our presence in the region more permanent and launch an office, which will be based on the site at Priors Hall, makes complete sense and shows both our commitment to our clients but also to expanding our operations in the region.

“We have started to build the right networks and contacts and we are confident we can take our expertise and develop more links with the town’s regeneration projects as well as opportunities further afield in the East Midlands.”

With the opening of the new office Hewlett expects to create a number of job opportunities including office staff and site operatives and a recruitment campaign is already under way.

The company is currently contracted at Priors Hall Park – recently hailed as the biggest construction site in the UK – to deliver an extensive infrastructure package which includes 7km of new road and a link to the A43 on the East side of Corby. Recent new contracts with Bela include a further 3km of link road and a roundabout plus drainage works.

Mr Cooper added: “It was a pretty bad start to the year but the new business is now moving forward as challenges relating to the administration are no longer slowing the pace of our recovery.

“These new contract wins and the launch of our office in Corby is just the start of our recovery and we are confident there is more good news to come.”

Two of the latest contract wins are for housebuilders, Southdale Homes in Thirsk and Barratt Homes in Otley. For Southdale Homes Hewlett has been awarded a roads and sewers package which comprises drainage, on site soakaways and first stage road construction.

The £2.3m contract with Barratt Homes forms part of the revamp of an old Otley paper mill site which is being transformed into a revitalised riverside area delivering 194 new houses office space, hydro-electric power facilities, cafes and restaurants – together with improvements to public areas such as a new riverside walk and cycleway.

Hewlett has also recently won a £1.5m access tracks contract with Babcock in Wharry Burn in Scotland installing the southern end of the Beauly to Denny OHL for Scottish Power. The scheme involves the installation of approximately 20km of stone tracks and work will run through to May 2014.

In the wake of the new contract wins, expectations for turnover have been upgraded with the company predicting a turnover of around £32m for the first year of trading.

Hewlett also has offices in Leamington Spa, Perth and Muscat in Oman.

The company employs over 300 and its operating divisions include power and process, rail, housing Infrastructure, highways and renewables.