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Constructing Excellence to merge with BRE

Following extensive discussions with its members and stakeholders, the board of Constructing Excellence (CE) has announced its decision today to merge with BRE.  The move is designed to strengthen and grow the CE membership and influence on the industry at a time of significant global challenge. 

Under the merger BRE will maintain the distinctive CE brands, develop the network and add critical capacity in developing digital tools, delivering training and events and growing the international reach.  It will also enable CE to achieve its long-term ambition of establishing a Constructing Excellence Foundation under the BRE Trust which would see trading profit channelled into research and education for the benefit of members. 

Constructing Excellence chief executive, Don Ward, who will continue in his role, said: “Joining with BRE gives us access to new resources and markets that we require to develop our membership, benchmarking and training services for the UK and international networks. It means that we can plan for the future with a new level of vision and confidence, and devote our energies to member content, thought leadership and sector influence.”

Constructing Excellence was formed following the coming together of several related industry initiatives set up to drive improvements in construction in the wake of the seminal 1997 Egan report Rethinking Construction. Its 80 members are drawn from across the industry supply chain, ranging from clients, contractors and consultants, through to suppliers and manufacturers of building materials and products. 

Peter Bonfield, chief executive of BRE said: “Constructing Excellence has always represented a movement for positive change, harnessing the energy and commitment of many hundreds of organisations at a regional and national level. Both BRE and CE are trusted and independent brands who have worked very closely together for many years - the synergies are strong. But most importantly we share the core objective of creating a better built environment for all. We are very pleased about this.”

Members have unanimously welcomed the move. Sean Jeffery, executive director at Kier Infrastructure & Utilities, commented: “Kier are strong supporters of Constructing Excellence and we see this merger as a positive move to help rationalise industry improvement initiatives and deliver more value for us as a major contractor. Together CE and BRE will be able to deploy sector-leading strengths in BIM, collaborative working, procurement and sustainability supported by training and benchmarking services, and we look forward to working in partnership for mutual improvement.” 

David Ferroussat, infrastructure procurement director at Heathrow Airport, said: “As a national asset and one of the biggest investors in British infrastructure, Heathrow has always promoted the benefits of sharing knowledge and best practise to drive improvements in the construction industry and we will continue supporting Constructing Excellence to achieve this.”

Murray Rowden, global head of infrastructure at Turner and Townsend and the chairman of Constructing Excellence, said: “CE has a strong vision for our industry and the merger with BRE provides us with the opportunity to strengthen our influence and realise our ambition of being the leading organisation driving improvement in construction and the build environment. It is a good move for our membership who gain additional benefits from BRE’s cutting edge research and global reach. We are all delighted by this development and look forward to sharing knowledge and best practice to benefit the industry.”

CE’s existing team relocated to BRE’s headquarters site in Watford on 15 August.  

If you would like to contact Andy Walker about this, or any other story, please email awalker@infrastructure-intelligence.com.