Stockton Group’s new MD: integrated civils and piling strategy for project teams
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Stockton Group has appointed Alan Smith, former SPI Piling managing director, as group managing director to lead its drilling, civils and pipeline divisions and drive a growth strategy focused on earlier-stage planning, design and engineering input. Founder Fiona O’Connell reports turnover has risen from £10m to £25m in a year, with clients seeking more integrated delivery across the three divisions. Smith brings experience delivering Environment Agency coastal defence and flood protection frameworks at Balfour Beatty, including managing multidisciplinary design and specialist subcontractor teams.
Technical Brief
- He has led projects from strategic definition through design, construction and handover, aligning commercial and technical decision‑gates.
Our Take
The rapid turnover increase at Stockton Group in the United Kingdom puts it in the smaller but faster-growing tier of contractors within our 919 Infrastructure stories, where most firms show far more gradual revenue shifts year-on-year.
The related 22 May 2026 piece on Stockton Group’s strategic restructure towards integrated design–construction–asset management suggests the new group MD role is likely to be heavily focused on lifecycle delivery rather than traditional project-by-project contracting.
Given Alan Smith’s background with SPI Piling, Birse Civils and Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering, Stockton Group is positioned to compete more directly for complex Environment Agency-type works that require deep geotechnical and temporary works expertise rather than simple civils packages.
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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