The Clugston Group was a privately owned business involved in construction and

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...

, property development and logistics. The group was based in

Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town and unparished area in the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire in Lincolnshire, England of which it is the main administrative centre. Scunthorpe had an estimated total population of 82,334 in 2016. A ...

North Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire is a unitary authority area in Lincolnshire, England, with a population of 167,446 in the 2011 census. The borough includes the towns of Scunthorpe, Brigg, Haxey, Crowle, Epworth, Bottesford, Kirton in Lindsey and Bar ...

in England. On 5 December 2019, the group and its construction businesses filed for

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...

, with debts of £64m.

History

The company was founded by Leonard Clugston in 1937 in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

, as ''Clugston Cawood''. Initially, it pioneered the development and use of recycled blast furnace slag from

’s iron and steel plants. This was used in the construction of runways for the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, and led the company into civil engineering, road construction and the building of sea defences on the east coast. In June 2009, the then company CEO Stephen Martin went 'undercover' at the company for the television series of Channel 4, ''

Undercover Boss ''Undercover Boss'' is a reality television series franchise created by Stephen Lambert and produced in many countries. It originated in 2009 on the British Channel 4. The show’s format features the experiences of senior executives working u ...

''.Stephen Martin undercover at Clugston Group
Martin described the experience as extremely positive, and implemented a number of new measures as a result. In February 2017, Martin left to become director general of the

Institute of Directors The Institute of Directors (IoD) is a British professional organisation for company directors, senior business leaders and entrepreneurs. It is the UK's longest running organisation for professional leaders, having been founded in 1903 and incor ...

, and was replaced by Bob Vickers (formerly a director of Carillion Construction Services). Vickers resigned as CEO in June 2019; Glynn Thomas became interim CEO.

Administration

The company filed a notice of intention to appoint

administrators Administrator or admin may refer to: Job roles Computing and internet * Database administrator, a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a database * Forum administrator, one who oversees discussions on an Internet forum * ...

from

KPMG KPMG International Limited (or simply KPMG) is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations. Headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands, although incorporated in London, England, KPMG is a net ...

on 5 December 2019, for Clugston Group Ltd, Clugston Construction Ltd and Clugston Services Ltd. The group reportedly collapsed owing over £40m (a figure later revised to £64m), and was operating from over twenty five sites primarily across the Midlands and northern England. Some 250 employees were reportedly set to lose their jobs immediately. Four hundred of Clugston's 629 strong workforce were employed in construction, and, on 9 December 150 were reported to have been made redundant. By 7 January 2020, the redundancies total had grown to 280; fifteen staff working on three facilities management contracts had been transferred to new employers, while fifty one staff were assisting the administrators. The group's losses were blamed on problem energy from waste (EfW) contracts and an "acute cash flow issue" exacerbated by the June 2019 failure of a key subcontractor which resulted in "significant ransom positions from the supply chain". The company had grown through participation, via a partnership with France's CNIM, in the construction of Energy for Waste (EfW) plants. EfW projects had also caused financial problems for other contractors in the United Kingdom, including

Costain Costain is a surname of English, Scottish and Manx origin. When originating in Scotland and northern Ireland the surname is an Anglicisation of the Gaelic ''Mac Austain'', meaning "son of ''Austin''". The English surname is a reduced form of '' ...

and

Interserve Interserve is a British construction and support services business based in Reading, Berkshire, which went into administration in 2019 and which is expected to be wound up in 2024. At that time, the group generated revenue of £2.2 billion and h ...

. CNIM took on sixty seven former employees of Clugston, who had been working on joint venture projects in the United Kingdom.

Operations

The group was organised into five divisions:Clugston: Structure
*

Construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form Physical object, objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Pr ...

Facilities management Facility management or facilities management (FM) is a professional management discipline focused on the efficient and effective delivery of logistics and other support services related to real property and buildings. It encompasses multiple dis ...

Logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...

* Private Finance *

Property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

The administration of December 2019 mainly concerned Clugston's construction related operations. Clugston Distribution Services was sold in January 2020, to Leicester-based AJWG. The Clugston Estates property business continued to trade until 3 February 2020, then also entered administration.

References

External links

Official siteOfficial site
{{Construction industry in the United Kingdom Construction and civil engineering companies of England Companies based in Scunthorpe Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1937 1937 establishments in England Real estate companies established in 1937 British companies established in 1937 British companies disestablished in 2019