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On first appearance Andrew Ridley-Barker looks like a construction boss straight out of central casting. The managing director of Vinci Construction UK is smartly dressed, his hair is cut short and neat, and he has a strong, welcoming smile. When he reaches out to shake your hand, however, he jangles.

This, it turns out, is due to the multiple metal bracelets he wears on his wrist, which he says go right back to his childhood spent living in first Malawi, then Zambia, Kenya and Zaire. 鈥淚t comes from when I was a kid - I鈥檝e always had them,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 had to take them off when I came here for school - they wouldn鈥檛 let me wear them.鈥�

Now that he鈥檚 in charge of a 拢1bn construction business, it seems unlikely that anybody will try to dictate Ridley-Barker鈥檚 sartorial choices. Life, however, still has its challenges. Like almost every other main contractor, Vinci has had a tough few years and has had to adapt in order to become as efficient and lean as possible. It acquired

Taylor Woodrow Construction in 2008, turning it into a 拢1bn business. Last year the company restructured, consolidating its buildings division into two operations and moving its airports business into the 黑洞社区 South business. However, Ridley-Barker is clearly now thinking about growth.

So, as the firm approaches the end of its current reporting year, how has that strategy been working out? And now that the economy seems to have turned a corner, what

does he see as the key growth sectors for the year ahead?

The quest for growth

While Vinci Construction UK鈥檚 turnover remained largely unchanged between 2011 and 2012, the company recorded a sharp fall in operating profit, from 拢10.9m to 拢4.5m. The fall in after-tax profit was even more dramatic - from 拢11.6m in 2011 to 拢1.8m last year, on a turnover of 拢1.06bn.

In order to address this, the directors鈥� report in last year鈥檚 accounts declared that Vinci Construction UK would bid for fewer small projects and instead 鈥渇ocus more on strategic frameworks and higher-value project work鈥�, reasoning that there is 鈥済reater competition for lower value projects鈥� and that 鈥渉istorically higher value projects return a higher margin鈥�.

鈥淲e are much more selective,鈥� says Ridley-Barker. 鈥淏idding for work is extremely expensive and we have to be careful about deciding which projects to go for 鈥� While we have increased the average value of our projects, particularly in the buildings part of our business, we do need to maintain a complexion of projects. We need some higher value projects and some lower value projects.鈥� He adds that Vinci is concentrating its efforts on schemes where it believes it has a particular specialism or where it can strengthen its offer with the wider expertise of the Vinci group internationally.

While Ridley-Barker won鈥檛 be drawn on what Vinci Construction UK鈥檚 numbers will look like at the end of this year, which considering the Vinci Group is listed on the Paris stock exchange is fair enough, he says that the company鈥檚 order book continues to be in robust health. (Vinci鈥檚 last set of accounts said that its order book for the 12 months ahead was its largest ever.) So what areas does he think will be most fruitful for the company in the coming years? 鈥淲e see infrastructure as a very important sector for us,鈥� he says, listing projects on which the company is already heavily engaged, including Crossrail and the Nottingham tram extension. 鈥淚n the building world our main areas by activity continue to be health, education, commercial, and of late industrial has started to come back.鈥�

Taking off?

But the area Ridley-Barker is most keen to talk about is airports, which he sees as the most significant source of growth for the company. Vinci Construction UK鈥檚 involvement in airports goes back a long way. Indeed, it has been a consistent feature in the business鈥� strategy for well over half a century, or to put it another way, for the vast majority of the history of commercial flight.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been working in airports since the fifties continuously - we鈥檝e never left,鈥� says Ridley-Barker, referring to Taylor Woodrow鈥檚 early work on airports. 鈥淪o if you look at Heathrow there鈥檚 our thumb print on an awful lot of the infrastructure, whether that鈥檚 in terms of construction management, project management, design, main contracting or principal contracting.鈥� As an example, he cites Vinci鈥檚 role building Heathrow Terminal 4, completed in 1986. When an extension was required in 2007, the company found itself back on site, with one project manager having worked as a site engineer on the original project.

Vinci UK鈥檚 airports division accounts for around 拢100m of revenue each year, or just shy of 10% of the company鈥檚 annual turnover. Consequently, this is a vital period for the company, with both Heathrow and Gatwick - Vinci UK鈥檚 main clients in the sector - in the process of agreeing the shape of their five-year capital investment programmes (worth 拢2bn and 拢1bn respectively) for the next five years, beginning in April next year. With such a long history in aviation, Vinci is in a good position to pick up substantial chunks of the work available, but nothing is certain and protecting that income stream is clearly vital. 鈥淲e want to maintain it - it鈥檚 important,鈥� says Ridley-Barker. 鈥淲e dropped off a few years ago in activity levels and it鈥檚 coming back up again now. We鈥檝e got seven projects at Heathrow and two at Gatwick. It鈥檚 important for us to continue our focus on airports.鈥�

While airports make an important contribution to Vinci鈥檚 bottom line, they are also challenging and stimulating environments in which to work. After all, the day-to-day business of an airport has to continue alongside any construction work. 鈥淎n airport doesn鈥檛 want to have a construction site in the middle of it, and a construction site doesn鈥檛 want to have an airport in the middle of it,鈥� says Ridley-Barker. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e oil and water - they don鈥檛 mix. You鈥檝e got to be very careful when you deliver projects inside the wire and inside the controlled zone that you have people who understand it; who understand how to deliver the project.鈥�

An airport doesn鈥檛 want to have a construction site in the middle of it, and a construction site doesn鈥檛 want to have an airport in the middle of it

For instance, in the UK at least, retail forms a vital part of an airport鈥檚 business model. But operators only have the limited period of time between passengers clearing security and needing to reach their gate. Consequently, anything that shortens that window of opportunity or reduces retail space, like a construction project, has an immediate impact on profit.

Similarly, contractors in airports need to ensure that they don鈥檛 get in the way of the efficient movement of people and luggage - particularly at hub airports where many passengers are catching connecting flights.

鈥淚f contractors have been in and removed all the way-finding - and these are large, complex, confusing airports - then that鈥檚 no good for passenger reliability,鈥� says Ridley-Barker.

And if not getting in the way of retail sales or marauding passengers wasn鈥檛 enough, contractors working in airports also some rather bulkier items to contend with: planes. While it may sometimes seem in London that flights come in and out of Heathrow and Gatwick 24 hours a day, there is in fact a window - albeit small - when runways fall silent. And that is the only time when it鈥檚 possible for some of Vinci鈥檚 projects to proceed. 鈥淲e have people who can work on a stand overnight, take an aircraft off at the beginning of a shift, work on the stand overnight and return the aircraft ready for operations at 5am,鈥� says Ridley-Barker.

While Vinci Construction UK may be solely a contractor, its French parent company has turned client. The group recently acquired the main Portuguese airports operator ANA Aeroportos and with it 10 airports in the country. Add that to the company鈥檚 existing assets and Vinci now operates 23 airports handling around 40 million passengers a year. This wider experience, says Ridley-Barker, is hugely beneficial to Vinci Construction UK鈥檚 domestic airports work. 鈥淗ere in the UK we don鈥檛 own airports,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut we鈥檙e increasingly looking to bring in group expertise that we have sitting in Portugal, in France and Cambodia in operating airports to assist us in the delivery of our airports construction in the UK.鈥�

So, Vinci Construction UK is placing airports at the centre of its growth strategy. If successful, it should also put Vinci in a strong position for when the really big airports contracts are up for grabs. After all, the Davies Commission, set up to review airport capacity in the south-east of England, is due to make its recommendations in two years鈥� time and seems unlikely to propose maintaining the status quo.

鈥淗eathrow is virtually full already - it鈥檚 operating at 99% - and Gatwick is running the most efficient single runway airport in the world,鈥� says Ridley-Barker. 鈥淪o we have to have a consensus on what has to be done. Of course it鈥檚 frustrating how long it takes to get major infrastructure projects moving in the UK. But if we鈥檙e going to maintain the economy, we need good connections with the rest of the world.鈥�