Public limited company | |
Traded as | : FTSE 100 Component |
Industry | Support services |
Founded | 1891 |
Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
Area served
|
worldwide |
Key people
|
Mike Turner (Chairman) Archie Bethel (CEO) |
Revenue | UK£4,842.1 million (2016) |
UK£387.1 million (2016) | |
UK£291.1 million (2016) | |
Total assets | US$8.41 billion (2016) |
Number of employees
|
35,000 (2017) |
Subsidiaries | Cavendish Nuclear Babcock Mission Critical Services Onshore Babcock Mission Critical Services Offshore Babcock Mission Critical Services (Australia) Babcock Mission Critical Services Italia Babcock Mission Critical Services Germany Babcock Mission Critical Services España Norsk Helikopterservice Scandinavian AirAmbulance Babcock Marine WRN Broadcast Conbras Serviços Técnicos de Suporte LTDA |
Website | www.babcockinternational.com |
Babcock International Group plc is a British multinational corporation headquartered in the United Kingdom, which specialises in support services managing complex assets and infrastructure in safety- and mission-critical environments. Although the company has civil contracts, its main business is with public bodies, particularly the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence and Network Rail.
The company has four operating divisions with overseas operations based in Africa, North America and Australia. Babcock is listed on the , and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Babcock International traces its history back to 1891 when the American Babcock & Wilcox Company formed a separately financed (capitalised at £250,000 initially) British company called Babcock & Wilcox Ltd. The initial board members of the British company included the renowned Scottish structural engineer Sir William Arrol and Andrew Stewart, of the Lanarkshire based steel tubemakers A & J Stewart & Menzies, subsequently Stewarts & Lloyds.
The company's sphere of operation was defined as 'the world except for North America and Cuba' which was the reserve of the US Babcock & Wilcox. For a few years B&W boilers were built in the Singer Manufacturing Company's Kilbowie Works at Clydebank near Glasgow, Scotland.Isaac Singer was a significant shareholder in Babcock & Wilcox.
In 1895, Babcock & Wilcox Ltd opened a new boilermaking works, based on the 33-acre (130,000 m2) site of the Porterfield Forge on the opposite side of the River Clyde near Renfrew. The Renfrew Works grew to over 200 acres (0.81 km2) by the 1960s. The workload expanded as a result of the two world wars and the supply of defence equipment became another major business area. During the 1940s, the workforce at Renfrew peaked at approximately 10,000. In the 1960s, the company became involved in the development of the nuclear power stations in the United Kingdom.