{"id":518578,"date":"2025-04-14T12:45:53","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T11:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=518578"},"modified":"2025-04-14T09:23:26","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T08:23:26","slug":"bible-study-how-wates-is-optimising-its-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/bible-study-how-wates-is-optimising-its-business-14-04-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Bible study: how Wates is optimising its business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Main contractor Wates may have posted record turnover in 2024 \u2013 plus a pre-tax profit for the 25th<\/sup> consecutive year \u2013 but its chief executive isn\u2019t resting on his laurels.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Construction News <\/em>on 8 April after Wates released its financial results for the 2024 calendar year<\/a>, Eoghan O\u2019Lionaird said he was still looking to apply lean management techniques to the business.<\/p>\n

Two years ago. after his appointment as Wates group chief executive, O\u2019Lionaird told CN <\/em>about his ambitions to improve productivity<\/a> based on his formative work experiences in Japan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call it \u2018business optimisation\u2019 at Wates, and we have programmes running in every division in the group,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n

There are no quick fixes involved here \u2013 he described the programmes as \u201cgenerally longer-wavelength initiatives\u201d focused on driving productivity and \u201cironing out the kinks in our processes\u201d.<\/p>\n

But family-owned Wates \u2013 ranked seventh\u00a0in last year\u2019s CN100 index of top UK contractors<\/a> \u2013 has already put some plans into action. For example, it set up a supply-chain policy team with an operating framework \u2013 or \u201cbible\u201d as O\u2019Lionaird put it \u2013 that describes everything the tier one firm requires doing on a site.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn practical terms, it\u2019s a compendium of dozens and dozens and dozens of processes \u2013 we\u2019ve been working through all of them\u201d with subcontractor partners.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s early days for the supply-chain bible. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say we\u2019re in the foothills but we\u2019re climbing hard at the moment,\u201d O\u2019Lionaird said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to address all of the core [site] functions over the next while, and take out the unnecessary waste that inevitably builds up in processes if left unattended over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Engaging the supply chain is important to O\u2019Lionaird, but in his view, new technology, AI and data analytics are other avenues to becoming leaner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe age of data analytics has well and truly arrived,\u201d he proclaimed. \u201cThe construction industry is catching up to that, whether by extracting data from operations, or creating and tracking KPIs on a daily basis as we now do. That\u2019s relatively new to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wates<\/a>\u2019 latest accounts described how AI and machine learning played their part in improving performance, not only in technology but also in less obvious areas such as safety and proposal management.<\/p>\n

For example, the firm has been trialling AI in partnership with Amazon Web Services on a site in central London. Here, AI-enabled wearable devices are being deployed so that site managers can monitor and control worker movements in an exclusion zone.<\/p>\n

There were no specific details of investment in AI and data analytics in the accounts, but chief financial officer Philip Wainwright told CN<\/em>: \u201cWe have a central team of 10 people who just focus on how we can apply data to our processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Lionaird highlighted the importance of sustainability and decarbonisation to Wates. Its Property Services division undertook \u00a3200m of decarbonisation and retrofit work last year and acquired Merseyside-based property services firm Liberty Group last October.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t make a lot of acquisitions, but this is an important one,\u201d he said. \u201cWe think the age of conversion from gas to electric heating, in particular air-source and ground-source [electric] heat pumps, is upon us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see an opportunity to leverage Liberty\u2019s capabilities not just in the maintenance of gas boilers but also in the conversion to electric source heating. And we hope this will drive profitable growth in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

In common with many other tier one contractors, building safety remediation is a key consideration for Wates, which reduced its provision from \u00a375.6m to \u00a353.2m last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to a period where we continue to provide good service to these [high-risk] buildings, but it\u2019s a reducing tail,\u201d said Wainwright.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Lionaird emphasised that Wates has \u201cleaned into\u201d its remediation work. \u201cIn some instances, we\u2019ve proactively reached out to our clients where we\u2019ve found the need for us to undertake remediation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe anticipate that the major projects [requiring remediation] have already been identified \u2013 they\u2019ve either been remediated or are being worked on. But if there are more to come, we will approach them in exactly the same way we have done before.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Main contractor Wates may have posted record turnover in 2024 \u2013 plus a pre-tax profit for the 25th consecutive year \u2013 but its chief executive isn\u2019t resting on his laurels. Speaking to Construction News on 8 April after Wates released its financial results for the 2024 calendar year, Eoghan O\u2019Lionaird said he was still looking …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135716,"featured_media":483973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false},"categories":[570,559,545],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n