Member Article

New Esh Chief unfazed by financial dip as £5m IT transformation takes shape

Durham-based construction company Esh Group is driving ahead with a multi-million pound investment overhaul of its IT systems to safeguard future growth.

Releasing its annual results this week, Esh saw its turnover drop from £275.5m the previous year to £242.7m whilst its pretax profit was £3.8m down from £8.6m.

New Chief Executive Andy Radcliffe says the company’s commitment to “Project Gateway”, the superior systems and technology project designed to streamline Esh’s business processes, account for the declines within the year and is confident the £5m IT investment will ‘transform’ the business moving forward.

Andy, who took over as Esh Group chief executive in April, said: “There’s no doubt that 2016 was a year of consolidation for Esh Group.

“We have a very strong underlying business – from a cash and balance sheet position – and our focus is on maintaining that advantage, through working smarter and providing more value and better service to our clients.

“That’s why we’ve taken the opportunity to invest in Project Gateway – a significant move for Esh that will transform our organisation and make us easier to do business with.”

Project Gateway, which is due to be launched in the first quarter of 2018, will use Oracle Fusion software to better integrate all of our core business processes, providing a more streamlined, end to end operating system.

The project involves the full-time secondment of 20 Esh Group staff who, along with support teams from Oracle/Inoapps and also KPMG, are busy defining new processes and ways of working, as well as planning and coordinating the significant change and implementation programme.

Following Esh’s rapid growth over the last 20 years, the investment is intended to make sure that systems and processes, which have formed organically, are capable of supporting future growth.

Esh also had to contend with economic factors impacting the construction market overall in 2016.

Andy continued: “Headwinds during the year included a slowdown in the commercial build pipeline due to the destabilising impact of the EU Referendum and Government policy towards social housing impacting that market.

“Those challenges eased into the final quarter of the year, and together with increased bid opportunities, we expect to show improvement in 2017.”