company lse cost industry construction civil engineering founded 1865 headquarters maidenhead united kingdom key people dr paul golby chairman andrew wyllie ceo revenue 1 316.5 million 2015 1 operating income 33.2 million 2015 1 net income 22.2 million 2015 1 number of employees 4 000 2016 2 website www.costain.com costain group plc is a british construction and civil engineering company headquartered in maidenhead . it was part of the original channel tunnel consortium and is involved in private finance initiative projects . contents 1 history 1.1 19th century 1.2 20th century 2 structure 3 major projects 4 controversies 5 references 6 external links history edit 19th century edit the business was founded in 1865 when richard costain and his future brother in law richard kneen left the isle of man and moved to liverpool as jobbing builders . the partnership lasted until 1888 when richard kneen left and richard costain s three sons richard william and john joined him . 3 by the time of the first war costain had expanded through lancashire and into south wales where it built houses for munitions workers . 4 20th century edit after the first world war costain began to develop housing estates in liverpool on its own account primarily to offer continuity of employment to its workforce . 5 with housing sites in liverpool in short supply richard costain sent his son william down to london to find new sites . he purchased the walton heath land company and in 1923 the separate business of richard costain & sons was formed . several executive estates in the croydon area were developed in the mid 1920s . in 1929 william died the other two brothers remained in liverpool and william s son richard rylands costain was sent to run the london company . under him richard costain & sons expanded its housing building large estates all around london the largest being a site for 7 500 homes in south hornchurch started in 1934 . perhaps the best known development of all was dolphin square completed in 1937 . 3 in 1933 the london based richard costain was floated on the london stock exchange ; the liverpool business was not part of the flotation . by then costain had completed over 4 000 houses in the london area some at prices up to 4 000 . 6 costain continued to expand its private housebuilding and it was described as one of the largest speculative housebuilders and estate developers in this country before the war . 7 following the flotation costain moved into civil engineering and worked first on the trans iranian railway and then at abadan iran for bp . losses on the railway on beckton sewage works and the costs of dolphin square caused financial problems and costain had to look for alternative funds when barclays withdrew its overdraft facilities . 5 the second war saw costain carrying out extensive military work including airfields and ordnance factories and it was one of the contractors building the mulberry harbour units . after the war building controls precluded any substantial return to private housebuilding and costain took its wartime construction expertise overseas by the mid 1950s as much as 60 % of turnover was overseas . some small estate development was undertaken but it was not until the acquisition of the rostance group of nottingham in 1962 that private housebuilding resumed on any scale . helped also by the acquisition of the blackpool firm of r fielding in 1969 costain was building around 1 000 houses a year by the early 1970s . 3 the substantially increased revenues that accrued to the oil producing states led to a construction boom in the middle east in the 1970s . costain was a major beneficiary particularly in the emirates and within a decade profits increased from little more than 1m a year to 47m . in the face of such overseas largesse domestic housing activity declined . in the 1980s recognising that exceptional middle east profits could not continue costain sought to redeploy its extensive cash balances into coal mining international housing and commercial property . however over expansion in the late 1980s led to high gearing just as international markets were turning down problems exacerbated by a disaster in costain s american coal mine . substantial losses were incurred in the early 1990s and asset sales followed leaving costain as a predominantly construction oriented business . 3 at a dramatic low point in 1995 the demise of costain was predicted incorrectly by broadsheets in the uk . it was not expected to survive as an operating company by the end of the century . 8 structure edit costain s activities are organised into two operating divisions natural resources water waste nuclear process and oil & gas infrastructure highways rail power and airports . 9 major projects edit the tsing ma bridge built by a joint venture involving costain projects undertaken by or involving the company have included the dolphin square apartments in london completed in 1937 4 a section of the trans iranian railway completed in 1939 10 dubai international airport completed in 1960 11 the deep water harbour at bridgetown barbados completed in 1961 12 the thames barrier completed in 1984 13 the channel tunnel completed in 1994 14 the tsing ma bridge in hong kong completed in 1997 15 the cardiff bay barrage completed in 1999 16 and the king s cross western ticketing hall completed in 2006 . 17 costain is also involved in the redevelopment of bond street station due for completion in 2017 . 18 controversies edit costain was revealed as a subscriber to the uk s consulting association exposed in 2009 for operating an illegal construction industry blacklist . it was also later one of the eight businesses involved in the 2014 launch of the construction workers compensation scheme 19 condemned as a pr stunt by the gmb union and described by the scottish affairs select committee as an an act of bad faith . 20 references edit a b c annual results 2015 pdf . costain . retrieved 28 march 2016 . costain at a glance . costain . retrieved 28 march 2016 . a b c d wellings fred dictionary of british housebuilders 2006 troubador . isbn 978 0 9552965 0 5 a b norman kipping costain sir richard rylandes 1902 1966 rev. in oxford dictionary of national biography ed . h. c. g. matthew and brian harrison oxford oup 2004 accessed march 7 2007 . a b costain albert reflections 1987 company prospectus 1933 bowley marion the british building industry 1966 end nigh for bleeding costain . the independent . 29 april 1995 . retrieved 16 january 2015 . costain business model archived may 17 2014 at the wayback machine . costain history archived july 4 2011 at the wayback machine . costain did you know item 27 archived july 4 2011 at the wayback machine . deep water at bridgetown film by richard costain ltd british film institute 1961 environment agency channel tunnel . structurae . retrieved 22 march 2015 . asiarooms.com community travel blog . asiarooms.com community . retrieved 22 march 2015 . onlinewales internet ltd. news wales environment cardiff bay barrage report . newswales.co.uk . retrieved 22 march 2015 . new western ticket hall opens tfl awards 300m bond street contract to costain laing o rourke jv . new civil engineer . 4 august 2010 . retrieved 28 march 2015 . construction blacklist compensation scheme opens . bbc news business . bbc . 4 july 2014 . retrieved 7 september 2015 . scottish affairs seventh report blacklisting in employment final report . www.parliament.uk . scottish affairs select committee . retrieved 7 september 2015 . external links edit costain group web site www.costain.com v t e construction industry of the united kingdom construction economy of the united kingdom companies consultancies and support services amec amey arcadis architecture firms arup atkins faithful gould buro happold capita ch2m cundall davis langdon elliott wood expedition engineering flint & neill gifford hoare lea interserve mace mitie mott macdonald mouchel rps scott wilson sweett group wsp housebuilders current barratt bellway berkeley bloor boot bovis countryside properties crest nicholson keepmoat lend lease mccarthy & stone miller muir persimmon redrow taylor wimpey united house defunct ashtons beazer broseley bryant homes comben homes george wimpey ideal homes mclean homes taylor woodrow westbury william leech wilson bowden integrated construction balfour beatty bam nuttall carillion cleveland bridge & engineering clugston costain galliford try gleeson interserve kier laing o rourke lend lease linford mace morgan sindall shepherd sir robert mcalpine volkerfitzpatrick wates willmott dixon suppliers current aggregate industries artex ashtead brogan cemex uk hanson london brick hss hire jewson kingspan kingspan off site mero schmidlin pilkington rmd kwikform sig speedy hire tarmac tarmac building products tata steel europe travis perkins wolseley defunct blue circle industries redland rmc group tarmac group government and regulatory bodies department for communities and local government department for business innovation and skills health & safety executive local planning authority planning inspectorate chief construction adviser to uk government industry bodies british constructional steelwork association bsria build uk ciob civil engineering contractors association construction clients group construction industry council ciria citb constructing excellence electrical safety council federation of master builders hbf institution of civil engineers institution of structural engineers national access and scaffolding confederation national federation of builders national federation of demolition contractors national house building council refined bitumen association royal institution of chartered surveyors scottish building federation select electrical contractors association of scotland society of construction arbitrators specialist engineering contractors group strategic forum for construction sustainability association for environment conscious building breeam code for sustainable homes ecohomes energy efficiency in british housing good homes alliance uk green building council other british construction industry awards building building regulations in the united kingdom building regulations approval construction news development control in the united kingdom new civil engineer planning permission town and country planning in the united kingdom category retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title costain group & oldid 734883784 categories companies listed on the london stock exchangeconstruction and civil engineering companies of the united kingdomcompanies based in maidenheadcompanies established in 1865hidden categories articles with wayback machine links navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to 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