Balfour builds Yorkshire presence with Strata buy

Published on Friday 25 December 2009 19:49

BALFOUR Beatty, the UK's biggest builder, has bolstered its regional arm with a £10.3 million takeover of Strata Construction.

Doncaster-based Strata, a mostly family-owned firm founded 90 years ago, specialises in affordable housing work.

Balfour said the company would be added to its Mansell subsidiary, which currently has little presence in the affordable housing market in Yorkshire.

In 2008, Strata made pre-tax profits of 1.3m on turnover of 33.5m, according to its latest accounts. The firm was set up in 1919 by Oscar Weaver and is now run by his grandson, Irving Weaver.

News of the deal comes days after Balfour Beatty chalked up a clutch of education contracts worth 191m.

The firm will build four schools in North Lanarkshire and two in Greenwich, one of which will be used as a gymnastics and judo training camp for the 2012 London Olympics.