By the mid eighties, Allan Jones was Chief Executive and Ian Carroll Chairman. Under these changes at the top, the company continued to press forward in the ever changing market environment, both at home and overseas.
Many new challenges evolved from the differing nature of the order book and this required additional investment in people, technology, plant and equipment.
Apart from those well practiced skills used on the varied construction sites, new plant was developed to recover and repair and lay new undersea cables in hostile environments off the coasts of New Zealand, Indonesia and various locations around the UK.
Similarly, on land, safe and efficient methods of laying television and telecoms cables were chosen for use in densely populated areas requiring such services in the UK and overseas.
Overseas continued to expand into new and exciting areas and types of contracts. In particular, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, St Lucia, Jamaica, India, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Australia provided the company with many substantial orders.
Working closely with the nuclear industry, operating systems and procedures were put in place whereby our personnel could work in safety on the decommissioning of power stations and specialist sites which had reached the end of their operational cycles.
In the UK, major power station works got underway at Sizewell ‘B’ and Torness nuclear sites and on several gas fired stations with a combined value in excess of £150 million.
Bob Lundy took over as Managing Director early in the 90’s and the head office was relocated from Hackbridge (London) to Renfrew.
At this time, activity across the UK market place was substantial, with more than 100 major works in progress. Of these contracts, notable was B.P.’s Wytche Farm Oil Gathering Station; BBC White City; Thames Barrier; News International Print Halls at Wapping and Knowsley; MOD Aldermaston; BNF Sellafield (Thorp); East Brae Platform North Sea; 130kV Sub Station Folkestone; Drax P.S. Desulphurisation Plant; British Library London and Glasgow Airport. The largest contract to get underway was that of systems within the Channel Tunnel with a combined value in excess of £200 million.
As the end of the Millennium approached, a first major project for London Underground was secured. Other significant contracts secured at this time included works in Hong Kong associated with its new airport and mass transit systems (MTRC and KCRC) totalling some £200 million.
In Dubai, the Chicago Beach Resort and in Egypt for the Ministry of Education, the Bibliotheca. Installation of services on a Drill Ship at Greenock and extensions to Edinburgh Airport, the Pfizer Research Building in Kent and at Dalry for Roche, a vitamins plant, illustrate a range of other works at this time.
This period of the company’s history concluded with the appointment of Mike Peasland as it’s new Managing Director in February 1999. Mike held this post until 2004, when he moved on to become Managing Director of the newly aquired group company Mansell.