Type Private Predecessor F. Shepherd & Son Area served United Kingdom Headquarters York, United Kingdom | Industry Construction Founder Frederick Shepherd Owner Shepherd Family Founded 1890 | |
![]() | ||
Subsidiaries Portakabin, Shepherd Industries Ltd |
The Shepherd Building Group Ltd. (trading name Shepherd Group) was one of the largest privately owned construction groups in the UK, but restructured in 2015 to focus on its Portakabin portable buildings businesses. It has a group annual turnover of around £600 million (following a change of financial year-end, the Group reported a turnover of £879.5m during the 18 months up to 31 December 2015).
Contents
- Early history
- Shepherd Group
- Disposal of built environment businesses
- Major projects
- Controversies
- References
The Shepherd Group's history can be traced to 1890 when Frederick Shepherd set up a successful building business in York. Growth, through innovation by several generations of the Shepherd family, by acquisition and through geographical expansion, led to the formation of Shepherd Building Group in 1962.
Early history
In 1890, at the age of 35, Frederick Shepherd who was a joiner, set up his own business, which rapidly achieved success in speculative house building in York. He was later joined by two sons, William who was the elder, and Frederick Welton, who had trained as a bricklayer. Around 1900, work was being undertaken outside York and a recession in the market for new houses led to a diversification into general contracting jobs.
When William Shepherd emigrated to America in 1910 the business became known as F. Shepherd and Son, and it was incorporated as a private company in 1924.
The founding Frederick Shepherd died in 1930. His son, Frederick Welton, was a driving force in the company and had been instrumental in developing the firm's main premises, at Blue Bridge Lane, beside the River Ouse, which remained the Shepherd head office premises until 1995. By the late 1930s the company with a workforce of around 700, had established a major presence throughout Yorkshire and North East England. When World War II ended, the firm took advantage of opportunities to expand its contracting operations, both by opening new offices and by acquiring existing local companies in new areas. The strategy was successful and the Shepherd company continued to expand under the direction of four of Frederick Welton's sons, Peter (later Sir Peter), Donald, Michael and Colin. Other substantial operations such as Shepherd Building Service, Shepherd Homes, Shepherd Engineering Services, Shepherd Development Co. and Mechplant became major divisions of the company.
Shepherd Group
In 1962 the structure of the business was reorganised when the new holding company, Shepherd Group Ltd, was formed. Then, in the late 1970s, the Shepherd Group became one of the 500 largest companies in the UK. This was achieved without raising public capital and the Group remain an unquoted company. It became one of the largest wholly family-owned private companies in the UK.
In 2009, the group employed 3,200 people at its head office in York, a national network of regional offices, and in 75 hire centres. Its construction arm was handling projects for the public and private sectors, including leisure, commercial, industrial, housing, health, education, retail and research laboratories. The Group's operations were then arranged in three divisions:
Disposal of built environment businesses
In early March 2015, there were rumours of a takeover of most of the Shepherd Built Environment division by Wates. Two months later, it was confirmed that Wates would take over Shepherd Engineering Services (SES), Shepherd Facilities Management and various contracts held by its loss-making Shepherd Construction arm (Wates refused to take on Shepherd’s problematic Colindale mixed residential and retail development), with some 1,200 staff transferring to Wates in September 2015. The Wates deal was concluded on 1 October 2015, being valued at £9.8m, with Shepherd booking a £2.8m profit after taking account of costs for the sale.
In a parallel deal in May 2015, Shepherd Homes, employing 60 people, was acquired by Galliford Try's Linden Homes subsidiary. Reports said the deals would allow Shepherd to focus on developing its Portakabin-related businesses, which made an operating profit of £38.9m on turnover of £408.7m for the 18-month period up to 31 December 2015.
Major projects
Shepherd Construction undertook schemes throughout the UK mainland. Its operations were controlled from offices in Birmingham, Leeds and York. Major projects included:
Controversies
Shepherd Engineering Services was revealed as a subscriber to the UK's Consulting Association, exposed in 2009 for operating an illegal construction industry blacklist, and was among 14 issued with enforcement notices by the UK Information Commissioner's Office.