Staff at BAM Construction are facing a round of job cuts after the Dutch parent group revealed this morning that Manchester’s delayed Co-op arena job plunged the UK construction business  £19.5m into the red in the first six months of the year.

Royal BAM Group said it had suffered a ‘substantial loss’ on the project in its latest reported results for the first half of 2024.

Converselyw the BAM Nuttall civil engineering business delivered strong profit growth more than doubled to £36m.

Ruud Joosten, CEO of Royal BAM, said the construction market remained challenging in the UK although retrofit, refurbishment and education and health provision offered attractive opportunities.

He said: “BAM needs to be flexible and adapt to current market conditions and as a result BAM has started a consultation process about reducing staff numbers within the Construction segment of the division UK.”

The Co-op project has been rumoured to have cost BAM dearly with estimates that the £350m cost ballooned to £450m after slow progress and delays.

In a statement this morning the firm said: “The performance of Construction UK was impacted by earlier reported project delays and supply chain issues, and included a substantial loss in the second quarter of 2024 for Co-op Live in Manchester.

BAM UK & Ireland trading

H1 2024
H1 2023

Business
Revenue
EBITDA
Revenue
EBITDA

Construction UK
£394m
-£19.5m
£419m
£13m

Bam Nuttall UK
£638m
£36m
£545m
£14m

Ventures UK
£128m
£13m
£167m
£20m

Ireland
£217m
£13m
£207m
£7.7m

“The performance of civil engineering UK was solid, especially in rail. Ventures performed well, considering the 2023 comparator benefiting from the divestment of an office development.”

Overall the UK and Ireland business delivered flat revenue of £1.34bn generating a profit down nearly a fifth to £43m.