Top 30 M&E contractors set for growth – ranking
The country’s leading M&E contractors saw revenue rise by nearly a fifth last year driven mainly by cost inflation.
But major firms are predicting a stronger year ahead as data centre work, commercial retrofits, life sciences and lab work starts to fire-up the sector.
The industry’s biggest players are also taking on major contract roles on data centre work as £100m-plus M&E packages hit the market.
During last year, Dalkia leap-frogged NG Bailey to become the industry’s biggest player after a rebrand that consolidated the Imtech, Inviron and SPIE UK brands.
Wates-owned SES, Skanska’s SRW and Gratte Brothers enjoyed strong sales growth lifting the firms up the rankings to now sit just below the big three.
| Ranking | M&E specialist | Turnover £ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2023 | 2022 | |
| 1 | 2 | Dalkia | 601m | 427m |
| 2 | 1 | NG Bailey | 532m | 500m |
| 3 | 3 | T Clarke | 491m | 425m |
| 4 | 10 | SES Engineering Services | 299m | 173m |
| 5 | 8 | SRW | 267m | 209m |
| 6 | 14 | Gratte Brothers | 250m | 125m |
| 7 | 4 | Crown House | 238m | 269m |
| 8 | 7 | Vital Energi | 220m | 227m |
| 9 | 6 | Briggs & Forrester | 212m | 234m |
| 10 | 11 | Dodd Group | 207m | 167m |
| 11 | 12 | Phoenix | 170m | 160m |
| 12 | 19 | Essex Services Group | 167m | 114m |
| 13 | 24 | HE Simm | 116m | 66m |
| 14 | 15 | Ark Mechanical & Electrical Services | 112m | 115m |
| 15 | 23 | JCA Engineering | 105m | 72m |
| 16 | 17 | Mace MEP | 82m | 69m |
| 17 | 16 | Dornan Engineering | 78m | 45m |
| 18 | 22 | Borough Engineering | 78m | 72m |
| 19 | NEW | PIP | 68m | 36m |
| 20 | 27 | LJJ | 63m | 64m |
| 21 | 29 | Designer Group | 62m | 58m |
| 22 | 21 | Derry Building Services | 60m | 78m |
| 23 | NEW | Stothers M&E | 59m | 49m |
| 24 | 20 | King & Moffatt UK | 58m | 79m |
| 25 | NEW | J & B Hopkins | 55m | 46m |
| 26 | 26 | CMB Engineering | 54m | 64m |
| 27 | NEW | Price Building Services | 52m | 49m |
| 28 | NEW | MCS | 51m | 21m |
| 29 | NEW | Bancroft | 50m | 57m |
| 30 | 30 | Swiftline Engineering | 49m | 57m |
| Total revenue | 4,905m | 4,128m | ||
Last year’s challenging business environment of inflation, shortage of workers, project delays and supply chain disruptions saw Michael J Lonsdale become the sector’s highest-profile casualty.
Other firms going under included London’s Haydon ME, York’s JDL Electrical, Plumbing & Heating and Bradford-based H Mitton and Newcastle’s
Norstead.
The top 30 firms saw a record six newcomers last year with four operating in London and south east.