Please select the period of your choice to find out more.
The Balfour Connection (1949-1969)
The share capital was bought by a large public company, Power Securities Limited whose main subsidiary was the civil engineering firm, Balfour Beatty and Co. Limited. With new capital made available, Kilpatrick went right on growing and within a couple of years had 600 on the payroll. It kept is original name and considerable freedom of action under the new set-up which was to last for 20 years.
In the early ‘forties, the company had carried out a series of contracts at Bishopton which added up to a record figure. Now, in 1951, it won what was believed to be the biggest single contract for electrical work ever placed in Scotland. This was for the Rolls Royce factory at East Kilbride and its value was £300,000.
A London office was opened two years later. But the really significant development of this 20 year period was the huge growth of overseas work, in which Balfour Beatty was already well established.
In 1953 came the first post-war overseas contract, for a jute mill in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The site supervisor was Fred Goodwin who became General Manager of the Special Projects Division.
In 1954 Kilpatrick tendered successfully for the complete electrical installation in the new palace in Baghdad of King Faisal II of Iraq. This episode was the nearest in the company’s history to an Arabian night’s tale, for it included lighting effects in fountain courts and palm plantations.
The first overseas office was set up in Baghdad, which happened to be the site in 1954 of the first British Overseas Fair. Being on the spot, Kilpatrick got the contract for all the electrical work. Contracts for fourteen more of these annual fairs all around the world were to follow and a special unit was formed for exhibition work, at home as well as overseas.
A great deal of work was done in Baghdad, including installations in the Houses of Parliament and in industrial plants. But the palace was a royal one for only two years. In 1956 there was a revolution, the King was assassinated, and it became the President’s palace. Conditions in Iraq were now difficult for the company, though in 1958 it was involved in the Dokan Dam project.
But Kilpatrick was strengthening its presence in the Middle East, opening branches in Kuwait and Lebanon. During the ‘sixties it became steadily more international, acquiring H.H. Green and Co. (Pty.) Limited in Melbourne in 1966 to develop the Australian market and forming Bicknell-Kilpatrick two years later in Jamaica, blending local experience with Paisley’s technical and management skills. In the same year Kilpatrick took over a South African company, S.M. Missing (Pty.) Limited of Johannesburg.
At home, the major source of growth was power station work, which included large contracts at Kincardine, Hunterston and Longannet. The company also worked on the Forth Road Bridge, completed in 1964 and later on the Erskine Bridge across the Clyde.
And at home, as well as overseas, Kilpatrick continued to add new components to its structure. In 1956 it established Lounsdale Electric Limited in Paisley to design and manufacture switchboards. Eight years later, it put down roots in Aberdeen by acquiring Dow and Nicholson Limited. And in 1968, on the eve of a third takeover that confirmed it as the country’s foremost electrical contractor, it reinforced the foundations of its standards by opening a new and larger training school.
