Moda’s sister company Caddick Construction will deliver the £154m Angel Gardens scheme in Manchester, directly hiring 20 former Carillion employees. It is one of the country’s biggest residential schemes outside of London and the move will save around 500 jobs on site, protecting around 30 sub-contractor companies previously working under Carillion before it entered liquidation on 15 January.
Moda and Apache Capital had contingency plans in place since last summer and the swift move announced today ensures there will be no material impact on the project’s cost or timeframe of delivery.
Caddick Construction will now act as construction manager and coordinate existing subcontractors across the 35 storey, 466 home build to rent (BTR) project. The company has been building its presence in the North West, with the new hires helping bolster the company’s already strong team.
Carillion started work on Angel Gardens in January 2016 after Apache Capital and Moda agreed a record breaking £85m BTR senior debt facility with Deutsche Pfandbriefbank. Today’s announcement will cement confidence in Moda’s in-house resources as it looks to deliver a £1.7bn pipeline of 6,000 rented homes in core cities across the UK, with other schemes in Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds and Liverpool
Andrew Parker, director of projects at Moda, said:
“We have had contingency plans in place for some time and wanted to prioritise saving jobs, as we hugely appreciate the critical role played by the main sub-contractors and small businesses that support major projects. We have always remained close to the key sub-contractors and suppliers throughout the process and this has proved to be an essential part of the solution to keeping Angel Gardens on track.”
Adrian Dobson, commercial director at Caddick Construction said:
“The fast and effective takeover of this complex project is testament to the strength and depth of our team. We are fortunate that our construction team has been able to step in and take this project forward within two weeks and are delighted that so many key Carillion employees elected to join the group, as this really strengthens our team in the North West.”
Tony Brooks, managing director at Moda, said:
“Both Deutsche Pfandbriefbank and our strategic funding partner Apache Capital are fully behind this strategy, and we are all 100% committed to delivering a fantastic scheme at Angel Gardens. We are very disappointed by the Carillion collapse but we have been able to get the job back on track fast and keep the sub-contractors going with minimal disruption.”
Johnny Caddick, director at Caddick Group PLC, said:
“The wider Caddick Group, of which Moda is part, has huge strength and cross-sector experience and a long-standing and deep-rooted relationship with the supply chain, and we look forward to being able to draw from its expertise. Moda has significant projects across the UK which shall continue as normal. We expect to start on site with a further four high quality build to rent schemes this year in Liverpool, Edinburgh Leeds and Birmingham.”
Richard Jackson, managing director and co-founder of Apache Capital, said:
“It was critical to Apache Capital that, as soon as we became aware of financial difficulties of Carillion in summer 2017, we implemented our contingency plans to ensure that we protected the interests of our investors and banking partner PBB. As a result, no loss of money or time will be suffered, job security is ensured to former Carillion Staff, financial security on this project is secured for our sub-contractors and onsite works have recommenced within two weeks to minimise delays and we will continue to deliver the project within budget.
“Given the adverse circumstances this is a phenomenal effort by the wider team and underpins the quality of our partnership with Moda and Caddick Construction.”
