{"id":494332,"date":"2024-03-11T09:30:06","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T09:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=494332"},"modified":"2024-03-12T23:11:54","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T23:11:54","slug":"utility-player-the-five-year-reign-of-clancys-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/interviews\/utility-player-the-five-year-reign-of-clancys-ceo-11-03-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Utility player: the five-year reign of Clancy\u2019s CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former rugby union professional Matt Cannon is celebrating five years in charge of engineering contractor Clancy, a period marked by continuous growth<\/b><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Pulling off a quiet country lane and through the entrance gates of Clancy\u2019s Middlesex headquarters feels a little like entering the grounds of a grand country estate. The long tree-lined driveway is flanked by a scene of English rural tranquillity. A large lake appears between the trees, dappled light from the bright winter sun bouncing off its surface.<\/p>\n

The bucolic setting belies the site\u2019s strategic location less than a mile from the M25 motorway. Former managing director Dermot Clancy, son of founder Michael J Clancy, discovered the site in the mid-1970s while driving around looking for a new west London home after the firm outgrew its original Wembley base. After acquiring the site, home to a quarry and asbestos factory, the office officially opened in 1983. The quarry was filled in to create a fishing lake, which is now fringed by a nature trail for staff.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reaching the business end of the driveway feels more salt-of-the earth than Saltburn<\/i>, however. A typical 1980s brick office block sits beside a sizeable workyard with a collection of low-rise workshops. Outside, a large collection of plant, painted in the firm\u2019s distinctive green and red livery, awaits attention. As I arrive, a muddy digger, fresh from site, is being prepared for a washdown, repair and fresh lick of paint.<\/span><\/p>\n

I meet Matt Cannon, the firm\u2019s chief executive, in a modern meeting room sitting within a formerly dingy wing of the office, which is now full of light. During Covid, Clancy took advantage of the absence of administrative staff to brighten up and reconfigure the office building. Steps away from the meeting room, the building\u2019s canteen is now adorned with quotes from Michael J Clancy. A black-and-white 1960s photo transfer of the founder and his young offspring adorns one of the walls.<\/p>\n

From rugby to construction boss<\/span><\/h3>\n

Cannon is the son of Doreen, one of Michael J Clancy\u2019s four children. Two decades ago, Cannon was a rugby professional, turning out for London Irish and at one point selected for England\u2019s sevens team while working part-time for Clancy. Since then, he has worked his way through the business in a series of operational roles. \u201cIt gave me exposure to pretty much every facet of the business,\u201d he says. \u201cFor us as a family, that\u2019s been really important. If we\u2019re going to be a hands-on operational owner and manager, we need to have the right skills in place to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cannon celebrated five years as chief executive in January and is starting 2024 in upbeat mood. In December, the infrastructure-focused contractor reported a 14 per cent rise in turnover (to \u00a3334.5m) and a 25 per cent rise in profit (to \u00a311.4m) in the year to April 2023. The 2022\/23 accounting period was the fifth consecutive year of growth, with Cannon dubbing it \u201cone of the best\u201d in Clancy\u2019s 65-year history.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cLike a lot of things in life, there isn\u2019t really one silver bullet.It\u2019s a combination of new areas and coming out of areas that didn\u2019t work for us\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Matt Cannon, Clancy\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So how has the firm ridden out the recent economic turbulence that has marked his reign so far? \u201cLike a lot of things in life, there isn\u2019t really one silver bullet,\u201d Cannon says. \u201cIt\u2019s a combination of new areas and coming out of areas that didn\u2019t work for us.\u201d On the latter, Cannon cites a move away from multiutility contracts and housebuilding as key factors. \u201cWe stopped operating in these areas and ultimately have focused on the things that we\u2019re really good at \u2013 water and wastewater, energy, and civil engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, a couple of frameworks that Cannon describes as \u201cquite difficult\u201d due to the original pricing calculations, have now ended. \u201cThe challenge with frameworks is that you\u2019re tied in for quite a long period,\u201d he says. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be wrong by much [on high-value jobs] for it to have a pretty catastrophic impact on your ability to make money.\u201d<\/p>\n

But these experiences have not dulled Cannon\u2019s taste for frameworks. Clancy\u2019s expansion from its roots carrying out work for London local authorities into a nationwide utilities player has rested heavily on securing places on utilities frameworks. In November, the firm was appointed on a five-year \u00a33bn capital works framework for South West Water. This expands the firm\u2019s geographical reach by joining framework places in East Anglia, the South East, North of England and Scotland.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cannon says the inflation indexing that comes as part of most framework deals has provided a key protection from rising prices (the firm reported an increase of 13 per cent in cost of sales in its recent results). \u201cWe\u2019re relatively stable,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re not exposed to so many fixed-price contracts, which I think is one of the key things that\u2019s causing lots of problems for a number of companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, the firm\u2019s involvement with HS2 \u2013 via a \u00a3180m utilities-diversion framework \u2013 is limited to the southern, rather than recently-scrapped northern, section.<\/p>\n

Clancy is also moving with the times. In December it signed a smart-metering partnership with communications infrastructure firm Arqiva, a relationship initially forged through the work that both firms carried out on Anglian Water\u2019s Integrated Metering and Development Services Alliance. The new joint offer is aimed at providing a one-stop shop for utility firms to implement their smart-meter plans, providing installation and data collection in one contract.<\/p>\n

Describing what he calls a \u201cunique\u201d offering, Cannon says: \u201cInstalling the smart meters is one part of the process, but getting the data from them so that you can understand usage, behaviours, etc, becomes the next bit. Another bit that goes with it is also creating a framework and a network to actually get the data out of the meter. You have to have masts in the right place, you have to have a network that feeds into them. You can\u2019t just install the smart meter and go across the existing networks.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a raft of new utilities frameworks set to come online, Cannon is upbeat about continued growth. He says that the firm\u2019s financial forecast for this current year expects revenue to rise at a similar level to 2022\/23. \u201cThere will be opportunity for us in the coming months with the frameworks, particularly the new frameworks that are up for grabs linked to our base in the water sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cannon also points to the four-pronged business strategy that has guided the firm since he introduced it in 2019. Each prong \u2013 technological transformation, skills, decarbonisation and investment \u2013 has a raft of separate implications. But three of the strands come together in the firm\u2019s spending on its fleet of equipment, vehicles and plant.<\/p>\n

Cannon says fast progress is being made around decarbonisation. A \u00a3250,000 investment last year saw the installation of solar panels on the workshops at its headquarters. Across the wider business, the easiest wins are achieved on fixed sites, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can set up battery-storage compounds, you can set up charging. We have invested heavily in solar pods to generate power to take site cabins off-grid. If you look at things that are coming down the line, we are talking to manufacturers about things like hydrogen [to power] the plant
\nand equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Transport provides different challenges. The firm is spending big on overhauling its telematics system to give it a more granular view of plant and vehicle usage, in an attempt to eliminate unnecessary journeys. The firm now has 140 electric company cars on the fleet, while last year it took delivery of 70 new electric vehicles for its operational fleet. It is also rolling out HVO fuel for its HGV vehicles.<\/p>\n

However, Cannon says that suppressing fuel use via telematics only gets you part of the way to net zero. And he voices frustration about some of the factors that are slowing Clancy down in meeting its ambitions on vehicle electrification.<\/p>\n

The scarce availability of semiconductors following Covid has inevitably impeded progress. But he points to a more fundamental factor affecting the firm. The major pinchpoint, Cannon says, relates to the high-volume, low-value repairs and maintenance work the firm carries out. Here the staff have to be \u201cvery mobile \u2013 doing three, four or five jobs a day in different locations\u201d and then driving their vehicles home, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge for manufacturers broadly is the weight of batteries,\u201d Cannon says. \u201cThe best electric range on [transit vans] at the moment is about 60 to 80 miles, right now with nothing in. As soon as you put the type of equipment our teams carry on a daily basis in, you\u2019re talking about 40 miles. At the moment that is not really viable from a productivity and efficiency basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two other technological investments in the past year have resulted in the refresh of Clancy\u2019s financial-control systems and the introduction of new depot-management software. Here, Cannon hails great strides in the user experience in recent years. \u201cThis is part of the technology evolution,\u201d he says. \u201cHistorically, systems used to be quite clunky. They used to need styluses and had tiny text. Now they\u2019re designed a bit like phones are from a user-interface perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhereas we used to design systems around what does the back office need, now it\u2019s \u2018how do we make it easy, big, simple, intuitive?\u2019. We\u2019ve invested a huge amount of time and effort, and we\u2019re trying to do things in a controlled way, trying to make sure it works, trying to get it adopted and get people to understand the benefits. I think where we\u2019ve got to now, people in the field want it, they recognise the benefits. It makes people\u2019s lives easier. And it works. And if the teams get that from a systems point of view, we\u2019ll get the benefits we want from a business point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n

Workplace culture <\/span><\/h3>\n

Despite its ongoing financial growth, Clancy is not immune to problems caused by the construction industry\u2019s skills shortage. \u201cIt\u2019s pan-business,\u201d he says. \u201cYes, we need engineers, but we also need finance people. We need HR professionals and we need quantity surveyors, we need technology people who can actually help us embrace AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Existing staff are a key plank of the firm\u2019s strategy. The firm made 170 internal promotions in 2023 and, since 2021, more than 380 appointments via references from members of the workforce (making up around 15 per cent of total headcount. \u201cThe single biggest recruitment tool we have got is internal recommendation,\u201d Clancy says. \u201cBeing seen as a good employer is a really positive part of that. People don\u2019t tend to recommend a company they don\u2019t like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Matt Cannon\u2019s background<\/span><\/h3>\n
    \n
  • 1997: Spends six months working in the field on main-laying jobs in southern England before going to university<\/li>\n
  • 2001-04: Plays professional rugby for London Irish, representing England\u2019s sevens team from 2002-03. Works for Clancy part-time<\/li>\n
  • 2004: Moves into the business full time, starting in business systems and then operational roles with Thames Water<\/li>\n
  • 2007-09: Takes performance manager role in Clancy\u2019s Scottish business<\/li>\n
  • 2010: Completes MBA at City University and returns to the business full time, working his way up through regional frameworks including with Anglian Water and South East Water<\/li>\n
  • 2016: Becomes Clancy\u2019s chief operating officer<\/li>\n
  • 2019: Takes on chief executive role<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Former rugby union professional Matt Cannon is celebrating five years in charge of engineering contractor Clancy, a period marked by continuous growth Pulling off a quiet country lane and through the entrance gates of Clancy\u2019s Middlesex headquarters feels a little like entering the grounds of a grand country estate. The long tree-lined driveway is flanked …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129711,"featured_media":494344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false},"categories":[570],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n