黑洞社区

You can always rely on the offices of a demolition contractor to have some good photos on the walls, and the boardroom of Keltbray is no exception. There鈥檚 a particularly arresting time-lapse sequence of a section of elevated dual carriageway being blown up 鈥� or rather, down, in demolition-speak. The first picture shows puffs of smoke as the explosives go off, then there are a few showing the bridge gradually sagging in the middle, and finally, it collapses into a cloud of dust. Strangely, the floor of the room is also dusty.

One of the first messages Brendan Kerr, Keltbray鈥檚 managing director, wants to get across is that the pictures don鈥檛 tell the whole story about Keltbray. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 always enjoy the title demolition contractor,鈥� he says in a soft Northern Irish accent, before going on to explain that the firm is capable of taking care of everything below the ground floor of a building, as well as some of the bits above. 鈥淲e see ourselves as engineers and technical constructors,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hat we do best is temporary engineering, excavation, ground remediation and the substructure. Obviously within that lies a large element of demolition.鈥�

This approach clearly has its merits. When Kerr joined the firm back in 1989, Keltbray鈥檚 turnover was 拢7m; last year, the figure was more than 拢100m. Kerr aspires to grow this 50%, but won鈥檛 be pinned to a timetable. 鈥淜eltbray came from the background of 鈥榞ot crane, got large ball, let鈥檚 knock things down鈥�,鈥� says Peter Rogers, the technical director of Stanhope, who has known Kerr for 15 years. 鈥淏rendan has professionalised what is traditionally the rough end of the industry by turning the firm into an engineering and deconstruction company.鈥�

This change of image is also exemplified by Kerr鈥檚 chosen mode of transport. Rather than stewing in traffic in a chief exec鈥檚 limo, Kerr travels in his personal London taxi cab, complete with licensed driver, which means he can zip down bus lanes quite legitimately. Never one to waste a marketing opportunity, Kerr has had 鈥淜eltbray鈥� emblazoned on the side of his shiny white vehicle.

The other strand to Kerr鈥檚 success is that everyone seems to know and like him, a popularity formalised when he was declared Personality of the Year at 黑洞社区鈥檚 2007 Specialist Contractor awards.

According to Rogers, Kerr has a 鈥渇antastic鈥� address book. 鈥淚f you go out for lunch with Brendan it鈥檚 good fun. He鈥檚 got good connections, he鈥檚 a nice guy and runs a bloody good company. You never get the feeling he鈥檚 invited you out to lunch because you are a useful contact.鈥�

Kerr, who is now 42, built up this success and popularity in classic Dick Whittington style. He was struggling as a carpenter in Northern Ireland when he decided it might be easier to make a go of things in London in the booming eighties. He was kicking around in various agency jobs, working as a site supervisor, when he got a job with McGee, the company that has ended up as his main competitor. 鈥淲hen I started, McGee was a very professional company with high standards,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hen I joined Keltbray, which was a much smaller company, I took a lot of inspiration from what McGee had done.鈥�

Keltbray poached Kerr from McGee in 1989 and started him off as a project manager. In 1994 he was approached by an entrepreneur to set up his own demolition business. Keltbray鈥檚 four shareholders offered Kerr a 20% stake in the business if he stayed on. 鈥淭his was an opportunity to grow a company that was already established,鈥� he says.

We don鈥檛 always enjoy the title demolition contractor. We see ourselves as engineers and technical constructors

He has since bought out his fellow shareholders and since 2003 is now the sole shareholder, with a personal wealth of 拢32m. One poll last year ranked him as the 35th top entrepreneur in the UK. He is keen to stress he isn鈥檛 the big bad boss; rather he runs the company as a family business on an open book basis, with profit-sharing among the six directors and senior staff.

鈥淗e is not a technical person but has a real knack for what is needed to make a business work,鈥� says Rogers. Kerr has made a point of attracting top people to the firm. He rattles off a series of names which includes Stuart Marchand, a former Costain man who runs Wentworth House, Keltbray鈥檚 engineering division, and according to Kerr is an expert on temporary works and facade retention. He also recently hired Damien McDonnell, a former Ministry or Defence scientist, to assess and develop new technologies.

The commercial market has been key to the firm鈥檚 growth, with most work coming from repeat business from major developers, end users and contractors. At the moment the firm is on site on four big projects in the City of London, including the Shard, the Pinnacle, the Heron Tower and the Walkie-Talkie. Some of these haven鈥檛 been easy. For instance, the Shard was delayed because of problems with funding, although Kerr insists the demolition of the buildings on site is carrying on as usual. Soft stripping has started, he says, in preparation for the main demolition.

He goes very quiet on the subject of the Pinnacle, where Hiscox, an insurance firm that occupies the neighbouring building, has sought to restrict demolition work owing to what it says is excessive vibration. 鈥淚t鈥檚 inevitable that there could be vibration as a result of any demolition,鈥� says Kerr, adding that this type of complaint is extremely rare. He quickly moves on to how Keltbray has swept the field on the Considerate Constructors awards front.

Isn鈥檛 this reliance on the commercial market a bit risky, given the economic storm clouds hanging over it? Kerr thinks not. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 inevitable there will be a slowdown in that sector, but we have a reasonably robust order book for the next 12 to 18 months,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e also taking our expertise into other sectors so we鈥檙e not vulnerable to market shift in one of them.鈥�

The firm is active in the PFI and industrial work and has added three new ones. The first two of these are rail and waste management 鈥� for example, Keltbray has formed a joint venture with soil cleaning specialist AWS, which involves shipping contaminated soil over to Belgium on barges to be cleaned. The third new sector is nuclear work. The firm has already done one nuclear project, the decommissioning of an experimental reactor called Dragon in Winfrith, Dorset for the UK Atomic Energy Authority 鈥� but isn鈥檛 this even riskier than the commercial sector? 鈥淲e are not involved in the fizzy end of nuclear, which is extremely specialist and scientific. We want to be involved in the structural dismantling and clean-up elements of the stations,鈥� says Kerr. 鈥淚t鈥檚 new territory and a new challenge.鈥�