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Kier has made more than 100 redundancies in the past six months as it reshaped its operations to focus the business on infrastructure and the south of England.
The fifth biggest contractor in the CNinsight 100 reported solid half-year results last week, with its property division pushing profits up 9 per cent to £34 million on revenue of £1.046 billion and with £131m in the bank.
But the results came with a warning of 18 months of margin pressure and a two-year wait for outsourcing rewards to come through as local authorities wrestle with their budgets.
Kier's share price dropped 12.8 per cent in 48 hours as a result, to 1,298p per share.
The company is attempting to mitigate margin pressure by shifting focus - and staff. Other contractors in the top five have their own strategies - Carillion is shrinking its construction business and focusing on support services and overseas work, while Morgan Sindall is placing faith in the longer-term benefits of regeneration.
The past six months have seen Kier spend £2-3m on cutting its cost base through redundancies, reveals group finance director Haydn Mursell, with the number expected to reach up to 150.
That tough climate means continual self-examination is required for Kier to be a £2.2bn construction, services and property firm, Mr Mursell says.
Within that is a £1.5bn construction business, spread evenly with a third in infrastructure and overseas, a third in UK frameworks and a third in the open market.
Taking that shape has meant redeployment of some of its 10,128 UK staff - including from the North to the South and from building to infrastructure, where lifestyle and skills allow.
Mr Mursell explains: "We don't see the construction revenue declining in terms of the volume of the business - that should be pretty stable now.
"There will still be mobility changes and that often means that we end up with a few redundancies, but we don't see any major redundancy numbers in the next...