A family-owned construction, engineering and development group, founded in 1923 and based in Heage, Belper, Derbyshire, with regional offices across the UK.
Bowmer + Kirkland, often called B&K, is a UK construction and development group that is both family-owned and family-run. Its website says it is made up of 18 businesses covering construction, construction services, fit-out and refurbishment, property and development, manufacturing (including offsite and hybrid building solutions), and homeland security. It works in 12 sectors, including defence, higher education, hotels, industrial, justice, leisure, life sciences, living, offices, retail, schools and student accommodation. One scheme it features is the Power Park, New Horizon industrial project in Nottingham.
The company was started in 1923 by Alfred Bowmer, a builder, and Robert Kirkland, a joiner, to do general building work in Heage, Derbyshire. Robert Kirkland died young, aged 40, and in 1928 his son Jack joined as an apprentice joiner. In 1941 the firm formed Bowmer & Kirkland (Plant) Ltd, with a fleet of more than 50 mobile cranes. Jack Kirkland became managing director in 1955, and in 1961 the partnership became a limited company. Today the group is led by Jack Kirkland, a fourth-generation member of the family.
B&K says it has "family values at our heart", with a focus on improving communities, enabling regeneration and providing better education facilities. It also says: "We know that we're only as good as our last job", and that about three quarters of its clients come back for more work. It stresses long-standing client relationships, and says its people are central to its success, with commitments on inclusion and diversity, health, safety and wellbeing, social value and the environment. Those are the company's own claims.
The head office is in Heage, Belper, Derbyshire. The company's website lists regional offices: Central, Eastern, Industrial and Logistics, London, North East, North Midlands and Yorkshire, North West, Scotland, Southern, and Western. One of its pages says nine regional offices and another says ten, so the exact number needs to be checked on the website. It says it employs more than 1,967 people in the UK and the USA across both countries, though the pages we read did not say how many are in the UK.
Because it covers construction, manufacturing and property, B&K employs site managers, building and civil engineers, quantity surveyors, planners, factory and offsite manufacturing teams, plant and crane specialists, development and property professionals, and finance, legal and human resources staff. Anyone interested in working for a family firm outside London, with its main base in the East Midlands, will find it worth a look. Its website lists current vacancies.
Website: www.bandk.co.uk
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