Ken Gillespie, Managing Director of Galliford Try Construction Group, has said that further job cuts cannot be ruled out – in the last eighteen months, the company has already seen a drop of around 15 per cent in staff numbers.

According  to Mr. Gillespie, Galliford Try’s contracting division will only compete for work where it could both perform well and make a profit, even if this meant a company contraction. For the six months to 31 December 2009 revenue was £415M - down £119M on the  same period in 2008.

Mr. Gillespie said that the company was hoping to maintain profit margins on its AMP5 water contracts, despite the reduction in the utility firms’ capital budgets as a result of Ofwat’s final dermination. Galliford Try has now renewed all its AMP5 contracts with existing clients.

Mr Gillespie said that having individual businesses in the regulated industries, each with their own managing directors, was critical to achieving efficiency. As a consequence the companies did not carry overheads from other sectors and staff retained up to 20 years of expertise.