Construction arm for Mercury Alliance

16 November 2011

Willmott Dixon is to form a strategic partnership with the country’s largest facilities management alliance as it seeks to expand its integrated service offering.

The company is linking up with Mercury Alliance, a new delivery model that brings together a network of ‘best-in-class’ FM partners that Willmott Dixon will team up with as it takes on larger projects. This will boost Willmott Dixon’s ability to provide an integrated service throughout the lifecycle of a property and give it scope to offer new services to clients.

Other partners in the Mercury Alliance include catering group CH&Co, national building maintenance experts EIC, cleaning specialists ICM, workplace management firm Harrow Green and international security giant Securitas. Each partner is hand-picked for its specialist expertise, commercial performance and record of service delivery.

As the UK’s second largest privately owned construction company, Willmott Dixon is responsible for nearly £1 billion of construction projects each year. The agreement takes the annual turnover of Mercury Alliance partners to over £1.7bn with a combined workforce of over 33,000.

Commenting on the partnership, John Frankiewicz, divisional CEO at Willmott Dixon Capital Works said, “This is an exciting new venture that will allow us to broaden our service offering as clients increasingly look to bundle several services in one contract. Also, we expect to see an increase in building contracts that involve managing the energy and carbon performance of property in use and our strategic relationship with Mercury will give us a formidable new service offering in this regard.

“As clients in both private and public sectors look for new ideas to get more from their capital spend, especially in regard to green issues, it is inevitable that more contracts will link construction with post-occupancy performance and care.”

Chris Brady, managing director and co-founder of Mercury Alliance, added: “Our aim is simple – it’s to redefine facilities management and make it relevant to a new generation. There is so much unnecessary duplication and cost involved in even ‘bundled’ packages and the Alliance model delivers immediate cost and efficiency savings, without any compromise in service delivery. We are delighted that Willmott Dixon has chosen to partner with us. Together, we believe that we can create a new model of working, setting the high performance standards that customers not only want, but actually deserve.”

Under the terms of the collaborative agreement, Willmott Dixon will work with Mercury Alliance partners to deliver the support services required by its customers nationwide.