Knights Brown appoints water director: AMP8 delivery and framework outlook for engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Knights Brown has appointed former MWH Treatment and Wessex Water executive Simon Osborne as divisional director for its new standalone Water Division, completing a restructure into four units: Water, Energy, Southern & Southeast, and Wales. The move targets AMP8 delivery, with Knights Brown already mobilising on three water company frameworks: Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water across Wales, YTL Wessex Water in the south-west, and Northumbrian Water in Essex and Suffolk. Financially, the contractor reported 2025 pre-tax profit up 85% to £3.9m on turnover of £116m, a 15% rise.
Technical Brief
- New Water Division is structured as an independent business unit alongside Energy, Southern & Southeast, and Wales.
- Osborne brings 18 years’ client-side experience from Wessex Water into a contractor delivery role.
- His most recent role at MWH Treatment adds Tier 1 process and MEICA delivery experience to Knights Brown.
- Framework positioning implies multi-year, repeat-work programmes rather than single-project awards, affecting resource and plant planning.
- For other civils contractors, similar divisional structures are becoming common for aligning with regulated-utility investment cycles.
Our Take
With Knights Brown’s 2025 turnover at £116m and an 85% jump in pre-tax profit, the creation of a dedicated water director role signals that regulated water frameworks with Wessex Water, DCWW and Northumbrian Water are likely becoming a core earnings pillar rather than a side market.
Osborne’s 18-year background at Wessex Water positions Knights Brown to navigate AMP8 procurement and delivery models in southern and western England and Wales, where our infrastructure coverage shows a concentration of upcoming resilience and environmental compliance schemes.
Among the 676 Infrastructure stories in our database, relatively few mid-tier contractors report double‑digit turnover growth alongside such a sharp profit uplift, suggesting Knights Brown is currently outperforming many regional peers and may be better placed to absorb risk on complex water projects.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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