Hargreaves Services eyes Heathrow as profits rise

An industrial services firm is eyeing blue-ribbon aviation work after demand nudged profits higher.

Hargreaves Services says it is ready and “well prepared” to play a major role in Heathrow Airport’s third runway expansion.

Bosses told Bdaily the company has “the kit and skills” to help deliver the headline scheme, having previously supported the global transport hub’s Terminal 5 venture.

The update came as the former coal miner, headquartered in Esh Winning, County Durham, unveiled financial results that showed pre-tax profit was up 4.8 per cent to £17.5 million in the year to May 31, on the back of revenues rising 25.2 per cent to £264.4 million.

Officials say the company benefited from high-profile contracts through its Blackwell Earthmoving division to support construction of the HS2 rail link and Suffolk’s Sizewell C Nuclear Power Station.

And they say it is targeting further “exciting” prospects that include a reservoir building programme – which would complement a waste product partnership with Northumbrian Water to return nutrients into land to boost forestry and farming – and the Lower Thames Crossing project, which is set to link Kent and Essex through a tunnel beneath the River Thames. 

Highlighting Blackwell Earthmoving’s work to prepare land for Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5, Gordon Banham, Hargreaves Services’ chief executive, said: “We are operating in the right areas.

“We were the last earthworks contractor to work at Heathrow.

“So, if the third runway goes ahead, we are well prepared for that.”

Simon Hicks, the firm’s chief operating officer, added: “We have the kit and the skills – skills that are in limited supply.

“We were there for the Terminal 5 expansion, and we have the knowledge and the people.

“Conversations are at a very early stage, but they will come.

“We are optimistic.”

The duo said the results were also further validation of the firm’s transition from coal miner to broader portfolio holder, which includes a land division containing sites earmarked for housing and renewable energy projects.

The former includes the East Lothian-based Blindwells development, which is transforming an ex-coalmine site into a 1600-home, primary school, shops and restaurant hub, with the latter containing Westfields, in Fife, which Hargreaves says “provides a prime opportunity to foster the development of recycling and green energy technologies”.

Gordon said: “If there was a gold medal for going from black to green, we would have that gold medal.

“Coal is part of our DNA – we mined it and we moved it.

“But we are responding to customer demand, and ESG is not just a tick in the box; it is about what society needs.

“For example, we provide waste services for Durham County Council, which wanted it delivered in a sustainable way.

“That costs a little more, but we are able to provide that USP.”

He added: “We own a lot of land – some of which we’ve had for 20 or 30 years – with around £80 million tied up in that.

“We have cash in the bank, and in the uncertain world we face, that is a positive.

“We are very confident on the outlook for the future.”

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