RMD Kwikform is a company based in

Aldridge Aldridge is an industrial town in the Walsall borough, West Midlands, England. It is historically a village that was part of Staffordshire until 1974. The town is from Brownhills, from Walsall, from Sutton Coldfield and from Lichfield. ...

, England, that hires and sells temporary works and engineering design for building

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form 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 Press 2009 and com ...

and infrastructure projects.

History

The company was formed as Mills Scaffold Company in 1935 and became GKN Kwikform on acquisition by

GKN GKN Ltd is a British multinational automotive and aerospace components business headquartered in Redditch, England. It is a long-running business known for many decades as Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds. It can trace its origins back to 1759 an ...

in 1983. It expanded rapidly in

formwork Formwork is Molding (process), molds into which concrete or similar materials are either precast concrete, precast or cast-in-place concrete, cast-in-place. In the context of concrete construction, the falsework supports the shuttering mold ...

and

scaffolding Scaffolding, also called scaffold or staging, is a temporary structure used to support a work crew and materials to aid in the construction, maintenance and repair of buildings, bridges and all other man-made structures. Scaffolds are widely use ...

under GKN ownership in the end of the 1980s. In June 2000, GKN Kwikform merged with RMD (Rapid Metal Developments, established in 1948), the formwork and scaffolding unit of RM Douglas (part of

Tilbury Douglas Tilbury Douglas is a British construction business based in Reading, Berkshire. The company was originally founded in 1884 as the London and Tilbury Lighterage Company Limited, and retained the Tilbury name until 2001. From 1991 it was known a ...

), to form RMD Kwikform. Tilbury Douglas renamed itself

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 ...

in 2001. Projects built using RMD Kwikform equipment included the New Tyne Tunnel, completed in February 2011. In 2015, RMD Kwikform launched its ground shoring range of products, extending its capabilities to ground works applications. When parent company Interserve got into financial difficulties in December 2018, restructuring options included spinning off the £250m building materials unit RMD Kwikform to lenders, leaving the remainder of Interserve as a more focused support services business. However, the

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objecti ...

reportedly objected to any deal involving selling RMD Kwikform, believing this would render the remainder of the business almost worthless, making it difficult to continue awarding contracts to the company. At the beginning of 2019, Interserve announced agreement on a deleveraging deal which retained RMD Kwikform in the group, but the plan was rejected by shareholders at an AGM on 15 March 2019. Interserve's board applied for the parent company to be placed into

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

, and pursued a ' pre pack' deal, selling the group, including RMD Kwikform, to a new company, Interserve Group Ltd, controlled by Interserve's existing lenders. In August 2019, Interserve appointed Ken Hanna as a non executive director of its board, and chairman of RMD Kwikform. RMD Kwikform had been the strongest performer in the group, but results in 2018 showed a 27% drop in operating profits to £39.6m, as turnover fell to £195.5m from £229m. In October 2021, RMD Kwikform was sold to France's Altrad group for over £140m.

References

External links

RMD Kwikform Official site
{{Authority control Construction equipment rental companies of the United Kingdom Business services companies of the United Kingdom Business services companies established in 1948 1948 establishments in England