Morrison Construction is a large construction business, which was acquired by

Galliford Try Galliford Try plc is a British construction company based in Uxbridge, England. It was created through a merger in 2000 of two businesses: Try Group, founded in 1908 in London, and Galliford, founded in 1916. Formerly involved in housebuilding ...

in 2006.

History

Morrison Construction was founded by Alex Morrison in

Tain Tain ( ) is a royal burgh and parish in the County of Ross, in the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. Etymology The name derives from the nearby River Tain, the name of which comes from an Indo-European root meaning 'flow'. The Gaelic n ...

, Scotland in 1948. Although ownership of the company would pass through several hands during the 20th and 21st centuries, the Morrison family maintained a presence at the business for over 50 years. During 1974, an 80 percent stake, and thus control of the firm, was sold to Consolidated African Selection Trust. During 1989, brothers Fraser and Gordon Morrison undertook a

management buy-out A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or High-net-worth individual, individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts bec ...

of the firm, acquiring Morrison Construction from

Charter Consolidated Charter International plc was a large British engineering business based in London. It was acquired by Colfax Corporation in January 2012. History Charter International's origins can be traced back to the British South Africa Company, which was ...

along with the businesses of Biggs Wall and Shand Construction in the process. One of this first moves was to return the group's headquarters to Edinburgh. Despite the hardships encountered by most of the British construction sector throughout the

early 1990s recession The early 1990s recession describes the period of economic downturn affecting much of the Western world in the early 1990s. The impacts of the recession contributed in part to the 1992 U.S. presidential election victory of Bill Clinton over incum ...

, Morrison Construction reported strong growth during this period as well as being a profitable going concern. In September 1995, Morrison Construction plc was floated on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

, during which it was valued at almost £77 million while Fraser and Gordon Morrison each retained a 27.3 per cent shareholding. By this point, the firm was steadily shifting away from traditional competitive tender work in favour of other business avenues, including building and property development, civil engineering, utility and energy, housebuilding, and

private finance initiative The private finance initiative (PFI) was a United Kingdom government procurement policy aimed at creating "public–private partnerships" (PPPs) where private firms are contracted to complete and manage public projects. Initially launched in 1992 ...

schemes. In September 2000, the company was purchased by

Anglian Water Group AWG plc is a British holding company which is parent to Anglian Water. It was previously listed on the London Stock Exchange, and was a member of the FTSE 250 Index, but it is now owned by the ''Osprey Consortium''. Its headquarters are in Hunting ...

Plc in exchange for £235 million; its new parent company stated that the move would permit it to provide an all-round service of designing, constructing and managing facilities. However, over the following three years, a series of

write-down A write-off is a reduction of the recognized value of something. In accounting, this is a recognition of the reduced or zero value of an asset. In income tax statements, this is a reduction of taxable income, as a recognition of certain expenses ...

s on the firm's value were enacted. During February 2003, Anglia Water Group launched

legal action In legal terminology, a complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons (see: cause of action) that the filing party or parties (the plaintiff(s)) believes are sufficient to support a claim against the part ...

against Morrison's former chairman, Sir Fraser Morrison, along with other senior figures, alleging that they had misrepresented the firm's fiscal performance to an extent that amounted to

fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...

. This action cumulated in a confidential out of court settlement. During early 2006, the business was split into three divisions, Morrison Construction,

Morrison Facilities Services Morrison Facilities Services was a United Kingdom based company that specialised in providing facilities services to private businesses and central and local government bodies. The core area of the business was repair and maintenance of social ho ...

and Morrison Utility Services; the latter two businesses were retained for a time by Anglian Water Group, while the construction division was acquired by the rival construction firm

in exchange for £42 million. Two years later, Morrison Utility Services was divested by Anglian Water Group, the management of which were seeking a return to being a pure utility company. Finally, in 2012, rival contractor

Mears Group Mears Group plc is a housing and social care provider. It repairs and maintains over 700,000 social homes across the UK. History The company was founded in 1988 in Gloucestershire, where it is still based, was initially focused on the social ho ...

purchased Morrison Facilities Services from Anglian Water Group for £24 million. Throughout the early 2010s, Galliford Try backed Morrison Construction's plans to expand its central Scotland building business. Various types of civil works were undertaken by the firm during this period; such projects included

windfarm A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...

school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

s, and flood defences.

Major projects

Major projects included the Kylesku Bridge, completed in 1982, the Dornoch Firth Bridge, completed in 1991, the Landshut Bridge, completed in 2014, Nucleus, the Nuclear and Caithness Archives, completed in 2017, and the

Queensferry Crossing The Queensferry Crossing (formerly the Forth Replacement Crossing) is a road bridge in Scotland. It was built alongside the existing Forth Road Bridge and the Forth Bridge. It carries the M90 motorway across the Firth of Forth between Edinburg ...

, completed in 2017.

History

Major projects

References

Further reading