Balfour Beatty to close seven offices across Scotland

Balfour Beatty is relocating seven offices to a single base at the Maxim Business Park at Eurocentral off the M8. Picture: Contributed

Infrastructure group Balfour Beatty is consolidating seven of its offices in Scotland in a move partly aimed at cutting costs.

Balfour, which has existing sites in locations including Edinburgh, Glasgow and Shotts, is relocating the offices into a single base at the Maxim Office Park at Eurocentral off the M8.

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The company, which is involved in projects north of the Border including the Dundee Waterfront project and the Aberdeen city bypass, said that the move to the North Lanarkshire site will “greatly enhance the collaborative offering across the Scottish markets” by bringing together a number of business units and functions under one roof.

It also said the consolidation will significantly reduce the cost of its Scottish office footprint across the Central Belt.

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Maxim Office park said Balfour’s decision to take about 43,600 square feet across three levels of the Maxim 7 building on a ten-year lease marks the biggest office letting at a business park in the west of Scotland in the past year.

Asset manager Craig Ritchie said: “It is great news that I can confirm we’ve secured Balfour Beatty as a new tenant at the park, an internationally renowned organisation involved in some of the biggest construction and infrastructure projects in the world.”

Cushman & Wakefield and Ryden represented Maxim Office Park in the deal, while CBRE acted for Balfour.

Alistair Urquhart, associate director at CBRE, said: “We’d been helping the team to explore opportunities in central Scotland for some time and when we viewed Maxim the team was instantly impressed, not only with the flexible and adaptable nature of the space but also by the fact it is located in the very heart of the Central Belt, right on the new M8 which makes Maxim a unique proposition for businesses.”

Balfour’s office reduction is part of the group’s “Build to Last” transformation programme launched by chief executive Leo Quinn two years ago in an effort to return the business to profit. At the time Quinn said the business had become too complex after a series of takeovers.

The company made a £199 million loss in 2015 but returned to profit last year and announcing full-year results in March Quinn said “the transformation of Balfour Beatty is well underway”.

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“Having simplified the group, we are focused on our core markets in the UK and US, where governments are committed to large scale expenditure on infrastructure,” he said.

At its AGM last week the company said trading remained in line with expectations. More than 20 per cent of shareholders who voted rejected against the firm’s remuneration policy after concerns were raised about plans to raise Quinn’s bonus entitlement.

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