A Carillion-telent joint venture has signed a seven-year contract to provide nationwide support services for Openreach, BT’s local access network business.
Under the contract, which follows a letter of intent signed in August this year, the joint venture will deliver a range of engineering, support and
maintenance services, consolidating work currently carried out by a number of outsourced suppliers. Services will include delivery of support and
installation services, asset management and maintenance, across Openreach’s five regions – London and Home Counties, the South East, Midlands, Wales and
West, the North, and Scotland.
Transition arrangements are now in place and the team is in the process of transferring work from the seven existing outsourced contracts over to
Carillion-telent as one, consolidated single supplier.
The integrated joint venture will be a 60:40 Carillion-telent partnership.
John Small, Managing Director for Service Delivery, Openreach, said: “Openreach is introducing a new way of working with a single nationwide supplier that
will drive up quality and lower our cost base, allowing us to continue to build a strong and healthy business. It will deliver more straightforward processes
for our people, who are key to the success of this transition. We look forward to Carillion-telent’s support with all our transition plans, and are keen to
build on our strong partnership with the joint venture to deliver continuous improvements going forward.”
Carillion chief executive John McDonough said: “The award of this nationwide contract that will transform service delivery for Openreach further reinforces
Carillion’s position as a leading supplier of support services for infrastructure and buildings. This builds on the strong relationship Carillion already
has with BT, for whom we have provided an integrated facilities management service for its UK estate since 2001. The Carillion-telent joint venture has
outstanding skills and resources and we look forward to working in partnership with Openreach to support them in delivering a first-class service to their
customers.”
Mark Plato, chief executive of telent added: “Today’s contract award cements a long-standing relationship with Openreach, during which telent has provided a
wide range of different services and projects on a national scale. Underlining telent’s reputation for high quality and reliability, we have been responsible
for the successful delivery of services covered by the new contract across a number of Openreach’s regions for some years. With Carillion’s extensive support
services expertise, I am confident that we will be able to seamlessly transition to the national contract and so support Openreach’s transformational plans
and the upgrade of the UK’s access network, while unlocking greater efficiencies across Openreach’s business.”
With annual revenues of over £350 million, telent has decades of experience in supplying a broad range of network and communications services in the UK and
Germany. Today, the privately-held company employs over 2,500 people and has one of the largest engineering field forces in the UK. Customers include:
Airwave, BT, Deutsche Bahn, EADS, Merseyside Fire & Rescue, the Metropolitan Police, National Express, Network Rail, Stagecoach, Tube Lines, and the UK
Highways Agency.
Carillion is the UK’s leading support services company with a substantial portfolio of Public Private Partnership projects and extensive construction
capabilities. The Group has annual revenue of over £5 billion, employs around 50,000 people and operates across the UK, in the Middle East, Canada and the
Caribbean.
In the UK, Carillion’s principal market sectors are Defence, Education, Health, Facilities Management & Services, Rail, Roads, Building, Civil Engineering
and Utilities Services.
In the Middle East, Carillion’s principal market sectors are Construction and Facilities Management. In Canada and the Caribbean, the Group’s main sectors
are Health, Roads Maintenance and Construction.
Carillion’s portfolio of equity investments in Public Private Partnership projects includes projects in the UK and Canada, particularly in the Defence,
Education, Health and Transport sectors.
BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. Its principal activities include the
provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to our customers for use at home, at work and on
the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business:
BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.
In the year ended 31 March 2009, BT Group’s revenue was £21,390 million. British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.
