January 2011
Chairman’s New Year Message
2010 was a challenging and sometimes difficult year. At the company’s staff briefing in October I stated that the
Group expected to be profitable for the 2010 calendar year, and this has turned out to be the case. While we
performed well in this period it is important to note that a proportion of the cash generated by profits in Kingerlee
Limited has been returned to the Group, strengthening and supporting our wider property development and other
activities. Recreating the broader asset, investment and trading base of the Group is important. From that base it is
possible to continue to provide the significant support afforded to Kingerlee Limited during recent years when despite
extremely harsh economic conditions it established itself as a leading player in its area of operations.
The Directors would like to thank all those whose great efforts and energy brought about these results.
Looking forward to 2011, there are some grounds for optimism. Our order book is reasonable, while the level of
enquiries for new projects remains even, but not buoyant. A few of our competitors have fallen by the wayside, and
while this is a distressing effect of difficult trading conditions, it can give rise to new opportunities. The recent award of the project to remodel The Old Fire
Station in central Oxford valued at £2.3m is an excellent example of such opportunities.
These and other tendering opportunities are fiercely contested and when these are converted to live projects they require the implementation of rigorous
programs for building effectively, controlling costs, managing risk, enhancing margins and preserving cash.
We have strong management teams throughout the Group and with continued commitment from all of us I am confident that we can come through this
difficult period a stronger and more efficient business.
A happy new year to you and your families.
Jonathan Kingerlee
Construction Division — New Projects
Special Projects Division — New Projects
Pembroke College, Brewer Street Development
Nuffield Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford
Student bedrooms and flats, an auditorium, art gallery, and cafe.
Start Date
25th October 2010
Client
Pembroke College
Contract Value
£16.5m
Architect
Berman Guedes & Stretton
Contracts Manager Glynn Biggins
Quantity Surveyor James Cole
Project Manager
Darran Gammon
Single storey extension to MRI Unit.
Start Date
August 2010
Client
Nuffield Orthopaedic Trust
Contract Value
£780k
Architect
ADP
Contracts Manager Mike Clelland
Quantity Surveyor John Burbage
General Foreman
Mick Wells
Old Fire Station Redevelopment, Oxford
14-16 Lathbury Road, Oxford
Crisis homeless centre, auditorium, art gallery, and cafe.
Start Date
January 2011
Client
Oxford City Council and Crisis
Contract Value
£2.3m
Architect
Fieldn Clegg & Bradley
Contracts Manager Paul Hardy
Quantity Surveyor Jon Halliwell
Project Manager
Tim Horn
Refurbishment of a pair of Victorian houses for student accommodation.
Start Date
4th October 2010
Client
St Clares College
Contract Value
£1.1m
Architect
Counter and King Architects
Contracts Manager Mike Clelland
Quantity Surveyor John Burbage
General Foreman
Mick East
Old Fire Station Redevelopment
Kingerlee has been appointed for the redevelopment of the Old Fire Station in Oxford.
Oxford City Council is working with Crisis, the national charity for single homeless
people, to redevelop the Old Fire Station, after a bid was awarded funding from the
Government’s Places of Change Programme.
This is an exciting project for Kingerlee as the company was involved in building the
original fire station in 1896 and we are looking forward to reinventing it.
The Old Fire Station will be home to a new Crisis Skylight centre providing education,
training and employment opportunities for homeless and vulnerably housed people
and a social enterprise, Crisis Skylight Café, open to the public.
There will also be high quality, flexible spaces for artistic professional development
and training, and for community groups to use to offer performance and visual arts
events, regular classes and courses for the public.
These spaces will accommodate an auditorium, a gallery and retail space, and a
creative workspace for artists and designers.
The Old Fire Station opened as a working fire station in 1896 and remained the main fire station until 1971.
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New Finance and Commercial IT System
Over the last few months a Project Team has conducted a thorough review of
potential suppliers, and of their specialist software. The recommendation of the
Project Team was to proceed with the Evision solution from Sage Construction. We have now commenced
an implementation programme, which will be in two main phases. The first phase will cover core financial
aspects including estimating, payroll, purchase and sales ledgers, subcontractors, as well as CVR reporting.
The target go-live date for this phase will be July 2011. The second phase will be targeted for November
2011, and will include web based procedures for requisitions and weekly timesheets, as well as electronic
storage of scanned documents within the system.
It is anticipated that the business should realise substantial benefits from the implementation of this new
system. This will include a great deal of staff time saved by improving and automating business processes;
savings in stationery and postage costs; and a much improved ability to analyse business performance in a
more timely manner. A great deal of staff commitment will be required throughout the implementation of this project – this will involve analysing
the software and examining improvements that can be made to our processes; testing the software to ensure it works in the best way for
Kingerlee; and training all end users in how to use the system prior to go-live. I will be responsible for internally managing this Project. If anyone
has any questions regarding these changes, or would simply like to find out more, then please do not hesitate to contact me.
David Warlow
Pembroke Ground Breaking Ceremony
After a lengthy tender process, we have finally commenced
work on Pembroke College’s Brewer Street Development.
The project was won through stiff competition with several
national contractors.
The planned construction cost of the development is £16.5
million. The new complex will become an integral part of
Pembroke College’s main site, with a footbridge to be built
over Brewer Street connecting it directly to the College’s
Chapel Quad.
The development will give a sympathetic ‘facelift’ to the
Littlegate Street area and will relieve pressure on local
housing by increasing College accommodation for
students.
The new development includes student accommodation
and attractive state-of-the-art facilities, including a 170-seat
multi-purpose auditorium, an art gallery, a new café,
teaching and function rooms, all set around two new
quadrangles.
The new buildings, in the heart of Oxford, will use
traditional materials in a modern context and will help to redraw the appearance of an undistinguished part of Littlegate The Pembroke Groundbreaking Ceremony, left to right, John Church - Bursar, Jonathan
Street, providing a sympathetic facelift to an area of vacant Kingerlee and Giles Henderson - College Master
sites and defunct industrial buildings adjacent to Campion
Hall.
The buildings represent a giant leap forward for one of Oxford’s physically smaller colleges and will increase the University’s overall appeal to
applicants looking for high quality and convenient accommodation. When the complex is complete, with 96 new en-suite bedrooms,
undergraduates will be able to live in College premises for three years of study, most on the College’s extended main site, while post-graduates
will also benefit from more rooms and 6 flats for those with partners. This will relieve the pressure on local private rentals.
The Master of Pembroke, Giles Henderson, commented: “After many years of careful planning and wide consultation we are delighted that this
new development is about to go ahead.
“This is no mere annexe we are building; this is a major extension of our main site which will benefit members of Pembroke and visitors for
years to come, in a way which is very rarely possible for a College situated in central Oxford.
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Kingerlee Trip to Lille
An early start on an overcast, rainy day in England took us to St Pancras International in London to board the
Eurostar for Lille. After a simple and efficient boarding process, we very smoothly sped
under London to the Tunnel. As we emerged from the darkness at Calais we were greeted
by glorious sunshine and subject to an even faster journey through the French countryside to
the City of Lille.
Lille is a big commercial city, the fifth largest in France and birthplace to the wartime leader,
General and later President Charles De Gaulle. It derives its name from its former position
as an island in a marshy area of the river Deule. The city features a variety of interesting
places to see, all radiating out from the historic central square with its majestic old Hotel de
Ville (town hall), Vielle Bourse ( old stock exchange) and Opera, surrounded by beautiful 17th
and 18th century palaces. It also claims the second most important art gallery in France, the
Palais des Beaux-arts and more museums and galleries than are good for you.
Despite the station being only 10 minutes walk from the centre, the day involved a lot of
walking. Fortunately, plenty of open air restaurants and bars grace the central area providing
much needed watering points to take on board the fantastic array of Flanders and Belgium
beers on offer and sample the local gastronomic speciality ,Carbonade Flammade ( a beef
stew not surprisingly cooked in beer).
By late afternoon, along with the rest of Lille, most of us ended up at the Champs de Mars to
the north of the city, with its great Vauban fort. The park area which included a small zoo,
allowing time to soak up the sunshine, sample a few rides on the annual fun fair or just
people watch and recover.
The train back was at nine o’clock which everybody eventually reached via a few more pit
stops, totally shattered and at least 2 inches shorter. The long and interesting day had left its
mark but had been a good one. It's thanks again to Captain Shackleton for doing all the
donkey work to arrange the expedition and the weather (at least that’s what he tells me). He
has just screamed “sprouts” at me which means it could be Brussels next year or he putting
his Christmas shopping list together again.
Bob Jackson
Completed Projects
Oxford High School
Bishops Close, Sonning
Kendrew Quadrangle, St John’s College, Oxford
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Five minutes with...
...with Keith Shackleton
Current Job Title: Health, Safety and Environment Manager
How long have you been working in construction? Since I left school at 16. You can do the
maths but it’s a very long time!
Why did you go into construction? I followed the family trend.
What was your first job in construction? I was an indentured apprentice Quantity Surveyor
for a company in Banbury. I stayed there for 12 years.
How long have you worked for Kingerlee? Since March 2002. I think I get some more
holiday next year!
What is the best aspect of your job? It’s training, because it’s a way of developing my
colleagues knowledge which builds a positive health and safety culture throughout the
business.
And what is your least favourite aspect? Having to complete questionnaires on health and
safety which have been put together by people who know nothing about the subject!
Tell me one of your most memorable moments in health and safety? When I first started at
Kingerlee there was a labourer out on site who refused to wear any PPE at all. After about
a year of constant hassling his attitude changed and every time I visited site he would proudly
show off his PPE. One day I visited site and he had just finished offloading a lorry that had
been waiting at the site before anyone had arrived. After he finished he refused to get out of
the telehandler cab as he had not had time to put on his PPE before stating work and was horrified that I would see him. Quite a turnaround!
Tell us an interesting fact about yourself. I have medals for ballroom dancing!
So did you watch Strictly Come Dancing? No! Because it’s not dancing!
Staff News
New Starters - Oliver Hughes joined Kingerlee in August on a years industrial placement as part
of his Construction Management degree at Oxford Brookes University.
Leavers — Best wishes to Tom Baldwin and David Murray, both of whom have left Kingerlee for
pastures new. Bon voyage to Laurie Crawford who is also leaving us at Christmas to do a round the
world trip!
Celebratory drinks and a presentation took place in the boardroom on 8th December for Dave Hawkes
who recently retired. Pictured left to right, John Bailey, Mary and Dave Hawkes. Congratulations and
best wishes for a long and happy retirement.
Bon Voyage Laurie!
Hello all, as some of you are aware I am moving on to pastures new this Christmas. However this is not a case of career
change or progression but to travel the world!
Shortly after Christmas (28th December to be precise) my Journey begins with a 13hr flight to Bangkok, Thailand from there
on I have roughly 5 months to explore the wonderful lands of Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and finally a trip
across the USA and Canada before finally flying home from The JFK airport, New York on May 11th 2011 (see map below for
illustration of route), a day I am very much dreading!
I am of course sad to be leaving Kingerlee. I arrived here just over 3 ago years now, starting off in the surveying department
before more recently making the long awaited
transition over to the estimating department
(probably the main reason why I’ve decided to
pack my bags!). All joking aside I have
thoroughly enjoyed my time with the estimating
department and it is a shame to be leaving just
as I was beginning getting my teeth into it!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all
at Kingerlee who have made my first
experience of full time employment an
enjoyable one, and I wish you all the very best
for the future.
Laurie.
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