Baxall Construction is celebrating 60 years of challenging norms with sustainable solutions
Baxall Construction (Baxall) is a highly respected contractor delivering new build, refurbishment, project management, and design and build solutions for a variety of sectors, including commercial, education, heritage, medical, and residential. As industry demands and priorities continue to evolve, Baxall has adapted its operations to build more sustainably in line with its net-zero targets, utilising modern methods of construction to navigate depletion of traditional resources and improve the performance of the building along with its occupants.
Founded in 1964, Baxall has grown organically to its current position by focusing on continuous improvement. Through collaboration, innovation, and efficiency, the business has developed an extensive, diverse portfolio ranging from the refurbishment of Grade II listed buildings to the construction of new schools. We sit down with Malcolm Clarke, Managing Director, to learn more about the company’s evolution and its latest sustainable construction projects. 
“This year, we’re celebrating 60 years of being young and innovative,” Malcolm begins. “The business started off as a builder that developed into a contractor, then into a design and build contractor, and then evolved into what we now call ourselves – a “Solutions Provider in the Built Environment”. We’re excitedly looking to the future and developing a new business model around whole life support for the customer, rather than the broken siloed approach the industry has perpetuated for too long.
“Our projects are very varied across the entire sector apart from heavy civils and volume residential. We complete new constructions, heritage and refurbishment work, and more recently, retrofit and decarbonisation. In terms of geography, we concentrate on London and the Southeast, developing our customer base through both existing clients and frameworks. We’re currently involved with a wide range of frameworks from the Met Police to West Sussex County Council, which provides us with a very strong, solid pipeline of work across London and the Southeast that brings a turnover of around £35 million, heading towards a £50 million target for 2024.
“We’re a sizeable regional business that has built a positive reputation for doing things differently,” he states. “We’ve always had strong values around family and teamwork, especially as the business was originally owned by a family and managed by the two sons. I later joined the sons and the three of us ran the business for over 30 years before we transitioned to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) around four years ago, which means the majority of the company’s shares are owned in trust on behalf of our employees. This has been a very positive development that has not only got more people involved in business strategy and planning but has also increased enthusiasm for growth.”
Turning to current projects, Malcolm continues: “We’re nearing completion of the first few net-zero schools in the Southeast as part of the UK Department for Education’s drive to Net Zero in operation. We’ve had to make positive decisions around the cost of carbon right from the design stages to ensure we hit required targets. While the schools include photovoltaic panels and air source heat pumps, net-zero requirements extend beyond energy sources and offsetting emissions.
“We look at the materials being used to not only measure the carbon impact when using the material, but also the embedded carbon in the production process. We are in the process of becoming an early adopter of an innovative platform called Sterling to measure both financial cost and the cost of carbon to help drive sustainable choices. Embarking on the net-zero schools project highlights our passion for improving the industry’s environmental reputation and aligns with our vision to challenge norms and develop new, ‘outside the box’ ideas.”
Whole life products
With a keen interest in research and sustainability, Baxall is committed to doing things differently. “Our approach to technology, digital integration, and modern construction methods keeps us ahead of the game,” Malcolm explains. “We operate a collaborative approach and often find the best solutions from knowledge transfer partnerships.
“We secured funding from Innovate UK around two years ago to carry out a project in conjunction with the University of Kent, for instance. The project collects and analyses data from completed design and build projects, particularly in the education sector, to understand how we can better design and brief similar projects. It’s not just data on energy usage, but also air quality, usage of rooms, and even soft data like absenteeism, teacher satisfaction, and exam results. We’re then using that data to establish an AI model of how we can optimise the design, build, and maintenance process to help clients maximise the building’s potential.”
As our conversation draws to a close, Malcolm reflects on how Baxall has evolved and how he plans to lead the business to new heights with an ambitious five-year plan. “We established the Baxall Academy a few years ago to encourage training and development not only for the apprentices and graduates that join us, but for every employee right up to the leadership team, including me,” he says. “It’s a productive way to help our people reach their full potential. As we’ve grown, we’ve recruited lots of new people over the years, many of whom hadn’t finished their professional qualifications, and we were able to support them to complete.
“We’re currently targeting four per cent net profit, but by 2030, we’re aiming to achieve eight per cent net profit, with a turnover of £80 million,” Malcolm concludes. “By being more efficient, we can both bolster our competitiveness and profitability. Aside from revenue goals, we’re passionate about having open conversations with others in the industry and working collaboratively with clients or organisations to find the best solutions for each project. We have developed our own Baxall Playbook to ensure we deliver efficiency, innovation and whole life products to our customers for another 60 years and beyond.”