GIANT services management company Carillion has won a major contract to supply so-called Soft Facilities Management to 103 military establishments across Scotland and Northern Ireland, securing more than 1000 jobs in the process.
On Monday, Carillion was named as one of the successful bidders for the HS2 contracts in England, gaining £1.4 billion worth of work in all.
Yesterday’s announcement of the Scottish and Northern Irish military contracts was coupled with a further revelation that Carillion had won a similar contract covering the north of England.
The two contracts placed by the MoD’s Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) are worth £158m in total.
Some 1030 people – some of them ex-service personnel – will be employed at the Scotland and Northern Ireland sites by Carillion which only last week announced it was facing a financial setback which wiped millions off its share price and led to the chief executive of the group, Richard Howson, standing down from his post.
It will mean that by early next year, Carillion will be providing catering, retail and leisure services, as well as hotel and mess services at more than 230 military establishments across Scotland, the north of England, and Northern Ireland.
The company said in a statement that it could double the £158m it will be paid by the DIO through catering and retail sales.
The DIO and HS2 contracts announcements came just days after Carillion posted a profits warning after a £845m write-down on some of its construction contracts.
Some £600m was wiped off the company’s market value, but the share price had slightly recovered by yesterday though shares were still trading at a third of the price of a week ago.
Though the company is not listed as having made donations to the Conservative Party – it stopped doing so more than a decade ago – chairman Philip Green was one of the 103 signatories of a letter supporting the economic policies of then Prime Minister David Cameron’s government in 2015.
The new contracts are part of Project HESTIA through which the DIO is cutting the original 80 soft facilities management contract to just seven regional contracts.
Carillion Interim Chief Executive, Keith Cochrane, said: “We are delighted to be awarded these contracts. The DIO is a key support services customer with whom we have built a long-term successful partnership.
“These contracts will enable us to create further training and employment opportunities for ex-services personnel in support of our commitment to the Armed Forces Corporate Covenant.”
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