Billington Structures Ltd
Billington Structures Ltd, one of the UK’s largest steel fabrication companies, is headquartered in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. It employs over 250 people across three main hubs, two in Barnsley and one in Bristol, and has the capability to process 30,000 tonnes of steel per annum, servicing clients at locations throughout the UK and Europe.
Billington Structures Ltd is part of the Billington Holdings Plc Group and has a turnover of approximately £60 million.
Contents
1 History
2 Operations
3 Major projects
4 References
History
The Company, now known as Billington Structures Ltd, was established in 1947 by Arnold Billington (b.1913, d.1989), a welder previously employed at the Wombwell Foundry. The site on Barnsley Road, Wombwell, was previously occupied by Aldham Glass Works and the brothers operated as a small works jobbing fabricator for the local industries.
Arnold’s younger brother, Rex Billington, soon joined and the company began to grow steadily, with new factories built in both the 1950’s and 60’s. In its formative years, the Company, then known as Billington Bros. (Wombwell) Ltd, relied heavily on the fabrication of steelwork for the local coal mining industry.
In the summer of 1968, David Rothwell Morris (b.1938) trained by Robert Watson Steel (now Severfield) joined from the then White Young and Partners as its first Chartered Structural Engineer. Under his guidance the company began pursuing structural work in the building and construction industry.
Morris was brought in to break into new markets and expand the business, and as such, employed his first apprentice, Steve Fareham (b.1950, Non-executive Director 2015 to present) in 1968.
In this period, the company tendered and won many contracts with Shepherd Design and Build (“Shepherd”), who became a main stay of the business. This increased growth resulted in extensions at its factory and the addition of an office block.
The company (now trading as Bilcon), became specialists in Cold Stores and eventually diversified into the overseas market, winning its first full turnkey project in 1977 for an egg store in Arbil, Iraq, which initiated a series of other projects in Iraq.
However, with the impact of the recession at the end of the 1970’s the attractions of trading in the Middle East brought the steelwork site at Wombwell almost to a standstill, until 1982 when Billington sold out to the Amalgamated Construction Ltd (“AMCO”). The Chief Executive Officer and founder of AMCO, was Henry Schmill (b.1925 d.2003).
AMCO (founded in 1970) initially worked for the National Coal Board and acquired Billington to help service the rapidly growing need for steel required underground in the coal mines.
At this time, the business traded as Billington Steel UK Ltd (amongst other names). The new company had very few employees but won its first conventional steel structure; an order from Shepherd for an extension to Chivers Hartley jam factory at Histon, Cambridge
In the mid-1980s, the company rejoined the British Constructional Steelwork Association (“BCSA”) and became an active participant.
AMCO acquired the assets of Bristol-based steelwork company, Modern Engineering Ltd, on its administration in 1984 and began to trade as Modern Engineering (Bristol) Ltd (“Modern”) from the company’s current site at Yate.
Circa 1987, AMCO acquired the assets of Boulton and Paul’s steel company (the former Pickup’s factory) on the outskirts of Scarborough. This factory was fully automated and geared up to produce beam and column type structures. The business traded as AMCO Structures and was particularly successful in the London market. Eventually, as recession took hold in the late 1980s, the business was sold to a Canadian company, Hawkins.
The three separate factories in Barnsley, Yate and Scarborough traded as independent businesses but under a common umbrella of the AMCO structural division. The Managing Director of all three units was Allan F Collins who joined Billington in 1983 as production director, in 1991 he left the business to return to Dorset and run the then Tetbury Steel Ltd.
Despite steelwork production peaking at 1.4 million tonnes in 1988/9, the recession of the late 1980s was particularly difficult for the Yate factory. In 1991 on Allan Collins departure, Steve Fareham was promoted from Technical Director to Managing Director with Peter Hart as Finance Director (Peter stayed with the company until his retirement in 2011). Fareham and Hart were also made directors of Modern Engineering Bristol Ltd.
Between 1992 and 2007 growth was steady and sustained which allowed for various extensions at the Wombwell site in Barnsley, both to the offices and factory. It was not until the late 1990’s that Modern Engineering Bristol Ltd changed its name to Billington Modern Structures before finally becoming Billington Structures (“Billington”) under the same management team.
Billington has always been early adopters of technology and the steady growth of the sector throughout the late 90’s and early noughties allowed new CNC manufacturing equipment to be purchased from both Peddinghaus and Ficep. Billington also participated in the later 1980’s in the European Eureka project which was looking at computer modelling, effectively the forerunner of today’s BIM. They also helped with 4 other competitors finance and develop what became the industry standard CAD system Strucad.
In 2000, Steve Fareham was appointed the President of BCSA, the industry’s trade association, and served three terms.
By now, Billington were one of the biggest subsidiaries of AMCO and contributed £30 million gross turnover to the AMCO group in 2003. Tube Engineering, a neighbour at the Yate site, was acquired in the same year and traded as Tubecon until becoming integrated into the Yate site’s normal activities as the tubular market dried up.
Billington Structures and the then AMCO subsidiary Hollybank Engineering who supplied steel arches to the UK mining industry, needed to diversify and easi-edge perimeter barriers was developed in 2003 to prevent falls from height when a structure is being erected. easi-edge traded originally as a division of Billington Structures and grew rapidly to its now market leading position.
The Company won many industry accolades throughout the 2000’s, including Builder and Engineer Awards, Contract Journal Construction Industry Awards, Building Awards, Construction News Awards, Barnsley Business Awards, International Strucad Awards and Structural Steel Design Awards,
The 2008 global recession was deeper and more unremitting than any previously experienced, output more than halved to less than 700,000 tonnes in just one year and, this time, recovery was slow.
In April 2008, after the management buyout of the mining business and other associated businesses, AMCO changed its name to Billington Holdings Plc, with Peter Hems as Executive Chairman and Steve Fareham taking over as Chief Executive Officer, Peter Hart became Group Finance Director and Mike Fewster, Billington Structures operations director as Group operations Director. In the same year, the Group recruited Trevor Taylor as its Financial Controller, who later was appointed Finance Director in 2011.
2011 also saw Billington Structures become the first Steelwork Contractor to ‘CE Mark’ a primary steelwork frame in the UK, and was proud to erect the very first CE marked steel structure in the UK, demonstrating compliance with the new and more stringent European standards.
In the same year, Billington Holdings acquired Peter Marshall Steel Stairs Ltd, creating a new division specialising in the design, fabrication and installation of highly engineered steelwork, staircases and balustrade systems
Billington Holdings continued to grow its businesses with the further developments of easi-edge. As an add on to its safety barriers easi edge, hoard-it was developed in conjunction with a major contractor during 2010. hoard-it provides reusable and eco-friendly site hoarding solutions on a hire and sale basis and developed into a stand-alone business working for a wide range of blue chip main contractors across the UK.
With the severe recession associated with the worldwide financial crisis beginning to ease, and with both Hart and Fewster having retired and Fareham nearing retirement, succession was a key issue. Mark Smith was appointed the new Chief Operating Officer in June 2014, finally replacing Steve Fareham as MD of Billington Structures and Group Chief Executive. Mark has a great deal of experience and in-depth knowledge of the construction industry and has worked in the sector for many years.
In December 2015, Billington Holdings Plc acquired two large industrial buildings previously occupied by Sherling Steel, which was principally engaged in steel and plate processing for the steel industry. With a combined usable area of 181,000 sq ft, this is the largest strategic investment made in the company’s history.
Billington Structures Ltd acquired all on-site steel processing equipment and machinery to enhance and expand the capabilities of the business. This investment will enable the business to increase its capacity on a substantial scale to coincide with the increasing level of business.
Billington now operates five modern CNC saw/drill lines and has a combined fabrication capacity of over 1,000 tonnes per week, working on projects ranging from simple building frames to complex structures in excess of 7,000 tonnes.
With a team of over 25 Chartered Structural Engineers, Designers and CAD Draughtsmen, just under half of Billington’s turnover is from Design and Build projects. The technical team use specialist 3D steel fabrication modelling and detailing software.
In-house beam straightening / cambering machines offer the ability to pre-camber a wide range of sizes and types of steel section. Fittings and main shafts are assembled and painted in up to 25 tonne erectable batches that are monitored through the production process in our struMIS production data management system.
Operations
Billington Structures Ltd is part of the Billington Holdings Plc Group.
The “Group” comprises the following companies:
Shafton Steel Services (subsidiary of Billington Structures) – large steel services and processing centre.
www.shaftonsteel.co.uk
Tubecon (subsidiary of Billington Structures) – structural steel fabricators specialising in Architecturally Exposed Structural Steelwork (AESS) and other complex structures.
www.tubecon.co.uk
easi-edge ltd – specialists in Edge Protection Barriers and Safety Equipment.
www.easi-edge.co.uk
hoard-it ltd: – providers of highly engineered, reusable hoarding solutions.
www.hoard-it.co.uk
Peter Marshall Steel Stairs Ltd – specialist in the design, fabrication and installation of highly engineered steelwork, staircases and balustrade systems.
www.marshallstairs.com
For more information on Billington Holdings Plc, visit www.billington-holdings.plc.uk
Billington Structures works in the following Market Sectors:
Commercial
Defense
Education
Health
Industrial
Infrastructure
Leisure
Residential
Retail
Distribution
Energy
Data Centre’s
Major projects
Major projects involving Billington include:
The Domestic terminal at Manchester airport
The sky bridges connecting the terminals at Manchester airport
Pier C, Manchester Airport
Xscape at Castleford
Ikea warehouses at Doncaster and Peterborough
HSE Laboratory, Buxton
Burmah Castrol HQ, Swindon
Café Royal, London
Grand Hotel Brighton (rebuild after the bombing)
Magna Science Museum, Rotherham
Swansea Waterside Museum
RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire
Derby Multi-Sports Arena, Derby (winner of Structural Steel Design Award 2015)
Next High Bay Warehouse, Doncaster
6 Bevis Marks Roof Garden, London
The Diamond Engineering Building, University of Sheffield
Greenwich Peninsula Energy Centre, London
Project Beagle, Birmingham
IKEA, Sheffield
RAF Marham, Norfolk
Lombard Street, London
Links