Shepherd Building Group

In 1890, at the age of 35, joiner Frederick Shepherd set up his own business, which rapidly achieved success in speculative house building in York.[1] He was later joined by two sons, William who was the elder, and Frederick Welton, who had trained as a bricklayer. Around 1900, work was being undertaken outside York and a recession in the market for new houses led to a diversification into general contracting jobs. When William Shepherd emigrated to America in 1910 the business became known as F. Shepherd and Son, and it was incorporated as a private company in 1924.[1]

The founding Frederick Shepherd died in 1930. His son, Frederick Welton, was a driving force in the company and had been instrumental in developing the firm's main premises, at Blue Bridge Lane, beside the River Ouse, which remained the Shepherd head office premises until 1995. By the late 1930s the company with a workforce of around 700, had established a major presence throughout Yorkshire and North East England.[2]

When World War II ended, the firm took advantage of opportunities to expand its contracting operations, both by opening new offices and by acquiring existing local companies in new areas. The strategy was successful and the Shepherd company continued to expand under the direction of four of Frederick Welton's sons, Peter (later Sir Peter), Donald, Michael and Colin. The company became Shepherd Construction in 1968 and other operating companies were founded as the business expanded.[1]

In 1962 the structure of the business was reorganised when the new holding company, Shepherd Group Ltd, was formed. Then, in the late 1970s, the Shepherd Group became one of the 500 largest companies in the UK. This was achieved without raising public capital and the Group remain an unquoted company. It became one of the largest wholly family-owned private companies in the UK.[3]

In 2009, the group employed 3,200 people at its head office in York, a national network of regional offices, and in 75 hire centres.[4] Its construction arm was handling projects for the public and private sectors, including leisure, commercial, industrial, housing, health, education, retail and research laboratories.[5] The Group's operations were then arranged in three divisions:

• Shepherd Group Built Environment (Shepherd Construction, Shepherd FM, Shepherd Homes, Shepherd Aligned and SES)
• Portakabin Group (Portakabin, Allspace, Yorkon, Foremans, Konstructa, Portaloo brands)
• Shepherd Group Engineering (Portasilo and Portastor)[6][7]

After March 2015 rumours of a takeover of most of the Shepherd Built Environment division by Wates,[8][9][10] in May 2015 it was confirmed that Wates would take over Shepherd Engineering Services (SES), Shepherd Facilities Management and various contracts held by its loss-making Shepherd Construction arm (Wates refused to take on Shepherd’s problematic Colindale mixed residential and retail development), with some 1,200 staff transferring to Wates in September 2015.[11][12] The Wates deal was concluded on 1 October 2015,[13][14] being valued at £9.8m, with Shepherd booking a £2.8m profit after taking account of costs for the sale.[15] Two years later, in September 2018, financial provisions for the Colindale development continued to hamper Shepherd Construction's financial performance, with the company reporting losses of £31.5m, mainly due to extra provisions to complete the retail and high-rise residential project.[16]

In a parallel deal in May 2015, Shepherd Homes, employing 60 people, was acquired by Galliford Try's Linden Homes subsidiary.[17][18]

Reports said the deals would allow Shepherd to focus on developing its Portakabin-related businesses,[11] which made an operating profit of £38.9m on turnover of £408.7m for the 18-month period up to 31 December 2015.[18] In September 2018, the group reported a £14m pre-tax profit, on revenues of nearly £300m, in 2017, buoyed by growth from the Portakabin modular and portable building business, which reported a £51m profit.[16]