1945–2008
By 1945, Taylor Woodrow had become a substantial construction business, and it expanded into domestic civil construction work and internationally, working in East Africa (it was involved in the notorious Groundnut Scheme), then west and South Africa and, in the 1950s, Australia, Canada and the middle east.[5] In the UK, Taylor Woodrow Construction became a prominent contractor in the power generation industry, building first conventional power stations and then the world's first commercial nuclear power station, Calder Hall. Hartlepool, Hinkley Point A, Wylfa and Sizewell A followed. In the private sector, notable contracts included terminal buildings at London Heathrow airport, and the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.[5]
Work in the middle east helped grow Taylor Woodrow’s international construction business and by the mid 1970s overseas profits accounted for two thirds of group profits. The centrepiece was the joint venture with Costain to build the dry docks at Port Rashid, Dubai, described as "the largest single overseas contract ever undertaken by the British construction industry".[8]
However, by the 1980s, middle east construction was declining and the parent Taylor Woodrow group was increasingly focused on housebuilding and the commercial property market.[9] Taylor Woodrow Construction was part of the Channel Tunnel consortium (completed in 1994) but its operations were less important to the group. A series of mergers and acquisitions culminated in the £6 billion merger with George Wimpey forming Taylor Wimpey in March 2007,[10] and just over a year later, in September 2008, Vinci plc, the British subsidiary of France's Vinci SA, acquired Taylor Woodrow Construction from Taylor Wimpey for £74m.[11][12]
