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Raynesway Construction Southern is nearly 10 years old, but has spent most of its existence keeping a pretty low profile inside the giant Balfour Beatty group. However, that may change with managing director John Jackson's growth ambitions, as Ross Pearman finds out.
Powerful parents often produce powerful children. And that certainly appears to be true of Raynesway Construction Southern, or RCS as it now likes to be known, which has grown from a company with zero turnover in 1996, to a strong organisation with an anticipated £200m turnover figure for this financial year.
Nurtured by managing director John Jackson since its creation, when Balfour Beatty won the highways maintenance contract for Hampshire, the company is one of the best known maintenance companies in the market, just behind Amey.
"We're better than Amey," Jackson says jokingly, with a smile on his face, before adding, more seriously, that RCS has matured very quickly during its brief history and has ambitions to grow even further.
"When we set up RCS, we never knew it would be so successful," explains Jackson. "Funnily enough, RCS came into being at the same time that competitive tendering was entering the market. It was a good start for us, as we started to realise our strengths in recognising the differences between the Highways Agency (HA) market and the local authority highways sector. We found that the HA provides a more consistent approach, whereas councils want a tailormade solution to meet their own needs and political persuasions. We have used these observations to help grow the business."
Strong growth
Clearly, Jackson's vision seems to be working, for he now sees RCS growing by 10% each year in terms of profitability and turnover for the foreseeable future.
"We are growing very strongly and the 10% growth is a minimum target," says Jackson. "This growth showed itself in 2000 when we exceeded our expectations of reaching a £100m turn-over figure. At the time of setting the target turnover was at £40m. We have now set ourselves a 2007 turnover figure of £300m and we are also developing our strategy for 2010, although I can't say what that is yet."
On the subject of margins, Jackson is reluctant to provide a figure, but adds that...