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However, Through Its Evolution Balfour Has A Number Of Distinct Advantages, ...

However, through its evolution Balfour has a number of distinct advantages, including size, geographic coverage, research and development capability, partnership arrangements which further reinforce its position. Finally, Balfour constantly improves and upgrades its products and service offering either by reorganisation or by acquisition and merger. All of these affect the ability of a new entrant into the market, and therefore vie for position with Balfour.
Contained within the building construction industry there are 7434 companies in the UK of varying sizes. The UK market was worth £107.01bn (2005) and the global market $4.2tn. The UK market is forecast to grow to £123.1bn by 2010. There is a great deal of consolidation taking place with a number of acquisitions and mergers taking place, such as Amec selling Amec Spie, Carillion buying Mowlem plc in March 205, Kier bought Ashwood Homes in 2005, Morgan Sindal bought Gleeson MCL in 2006 and Balfour disposed of Andover Controls in 2004 and acquired JCM Group in 2005.
Some of the main competitors within the UK and the USA are ;
In the UKIn the USA
Alfred McAlpineBetchtel Group Incorporated
Amec plcBovis Lend Lease
Bovis Lend LeaseCentex Construction Group
Kier GroupGilbane Building Corporation
Costain
Corillion
Morgan Sindall
Laing O Rourke
Skanska
HBG Construction
Mowlem
In analysing two of the main competitors within the UK, both Amec plc (Amec) and Kier Group (Kier) are interesting for the following reasons.
Amec's stated strategy is to be a leading supplier of high value consultancy, engineering and project management services to defined market segments within the world's energy and industrial process industries.
Amec differentiates itself from Balfour in that it has offshore gas and oil production facilities. It is similar to Kier in that it also has metal and mineral mines, a clear one stop shop proposition.
Its main business offerings are in oil and gas, oil sands, minerals and metal mining, nuclear, industrial, earth and environmental and wind energy. Unlike Balfour therefore, Amec concentrates on non domestic construction, rather than property development and social housing. In fact in December 2006 it announced its decision to dispose of its, Built Environment portfolio including Building and Civil Engineering, Building and Facilities Services, Property Developments and PPP, together with some peripheral activities. These businesses accounted for aggregate revenues in 2005 of £1.3bn and generated profit of £14m.
Therefore Amec has reformed itself and differentiated itself in focusing on its core strengths within the non domestic construction market, making its competitive advantage more sustainable, as it no longer has the focus of attention taken away from its core business.
As with Balfour and Kier, Amec also embraces the social and environmental aspects of the industry.

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