
Kier Group's Chief Executive Andrew Davies announced retirement
By
Following a thorough internal and external selection process, the board appointed Togwell as its new Chief Executive, the firm said
Kier has appointed Stuart Togwell as its new Chief Executive. Togwell will assume the role on 1 November 2025, following the retirement of Andrew Davies. Currently, Togwell serves as Kier's Executive Director and Group Managing Director of Kier Construction.
'I would like to thank Andrew for his exceptional leadership over the last six years, which has transformed Kier. We proudly remain one of the UK's leading infrastructure services, construction and property groups. Under Andrew's leadership the group has increased its resilience, strengthened its financial position and currently has a record order book of over US $14.8bn. Furthermore, during his tenure, Kier returned to the FTSE250 and recommenced dividend payments and has built a culture based on safety, delivery, discipline and performance excellence. On behalf of the board and all his colleagues, I wish him the very best in everything he does,' said Kier Group's Board Chairman Matthew Lester.
He added, 'Andrew and his management team set out a clear strategy, purpose and vision for the group, initially to deliver its medium-term value creation plan and latterly to deliver long-term sustainable growth and with invigorated and motivated colleagues, Kier is realising this ambition. Although Togwell was always the inside man, Lester said he was not the only candidate considered. Following a thorough internal and external selection process, the board is delighted to appoint Stuart Togwell as its new Chief Executive. Stuart has played a pivotal role in Kier's transformation and the board is confident that his skill set is ideally suited to leading Kier through the next chapter of its development and to deliver long-term sustainable growth.'
Davies commented, 'It has been an absolute privilege to lead Kier and to transform the group into a strong and sustainable business that benefits all stakeholders. I want to thank all the colleagues for their support, hard work and commitment over the last six years in building the foundations to ensure Kier remains a leading infrastructure services, construction and property company that is vital to the UK and is better placed than ever to succeed.'
Togwell remarked, 'I am honoured to be appointed as the next Chief Executive and look forward to working with Kier's exceptional teams to drive success and growth and deliver for our customers, our communities and this industry that I am so passionate about.'
Togwell, a chartered surveyor, commenced his career as an apprentice surveyor with Wates Group, where he remained for 32 years until 2019. He joined Kier as the Group Commercial Director, in December 2022, and was appointed as the Managing Director of Kier Construction in October 2024. He joined the group main board, alongside Davies and Chief Financial Officer Simon Kesterton.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Zawya
7 minutes ago
- Zawya
Brexit's parallels with Trump tariffs tell a tale: Mike Dolan
(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters) LONDON - In figuring out why the U.S. tariff shock hasn't sent the economy or financial world into a tailspin, Britain's exit from the European Union trade bloc provides something of a playbook - and without a particularly happy ending. Aside from vast differences in economic scale and global reach, the two episodes bear some comparison in how they upended years of deeply integrated free trade and possibly in how business, the economy at large and financial markets reacted. The 2016 Brexit referendum and Trump's tariffs this year were each widely billed as economic shocks that would send the financial world into paroxysms. They didn't, at least not at the outset. To be sure, both were followed by dramatic downward lurches in the two countries' respective currencies. But, to some extent, the steep drop in sterling after the referendum vote and the dollar's plunge on President Donald Trump's tariff plan this year helped offset some of the wider impact - at least on stock markets that are loaded with global firms with outsized foreign revenue. More broadly, however, the difficulty in isolating their immediate net impact means no "big bang" economic crisis unfolds to prove critics right - even if their enduring legacy turns out to be a slow burn of economic potential and lost output, often obscured by multiple other crosswinds. SLOW BURN In Britain's case, the seismic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic distorted any attempt to easily assess Brexit when it actually happened. Tortuous negotiations with the EU meant the UK's departure eventually occurred on the eve of the health crisis in 2020 and the new trade rules did not come into force until a year later. But in the four years between the referendum surprise and the pandemic, the UK economy never entered a recession nor recorded a negative quarterly GDP print - confounding pro-EU supporters at the time and bolstering the Brexit lobby. Emerging from the twin hits, however, the economy has almost flatlined since. FTSE 100 stocks, helped by the weaker pound, kept pace with the S&P 500 and world indexes for about a year after the referendum before chronic underperformance set in. Since 2018, the UK market has lagged MSCI's all-country index by some 35%. What's more, it's taken more than eight years for the pound's effective exchange rate to recover its pre-referendum levels. Few mainstream economists now doubt that Brexit has taken a serious toll on the UK economy - even if blame for that gets sprayed in multiple directions - and oceans of ink have been spilled trying to disentangle the precise impacts. One academic study by a number of Bank of England economists earlier this year concluded that uncertainty following the referendum resulted in little change in goods exports and imports before the exit was finalized. But after the new rules hit, UK imports fell 3% and overall exports fell 6.4%, largely because of the 13% hit in exports to the EU. While this slump seems relatively modest compared to the official forecasts of the longer-term hit, the pain has been borne disproportionately by small businesses. Additionally, these findings exclude the Brexit hit to services and London's finance sector, which registered a much bigger economic dent. And the cumulative damage to London and the service sector over the next 10 years continues to worry the City. 'LIGHTING A FIRE' The U.S. tariff story is of a completely different order, of course, as it will reverberate across the world economy. But there are some parallels, not least in certain aspects of the market reactions and the initial resilience. Economists estimate that the tariffs could lop anywhere from 0.5% to 1.0% off U.S. GDP over time. That's a $150-$300 billion hit, which, though painful, would not be an instant crisis for an economy that's growing at a roughly 2% annualized rate, where imported goods represent just 11% of GDP and where tech and AI trends are generating considerable tailwinds. But as former White House economic adviser Jason Furman pointed out in a New York Times essay last week, the tariff damage is likely not a one-off hit. The loss of 0.5% of GDP, he argued, is "the equivalent of every household in America taking around $1,000 and lighting it on fire - then doing it again every year. Forever." In the end, the main point of the British comparison is to show how extreme partisan arguments on the pros or cons of such giant economic policy changes don't necessarily get resolved cleanly in adaptive, hardy and hyper-complex modern economies. The upshot is there's rarely a big crash to prove a point. And that in itself is unnerving if politically-motivated policies then appear workable on the surface and resist instant pushback - only to act as a drain on the economy over a protracted period. Many observers reasonably argue that sovereign democratic politics should always trump economic conventions and even directions. But do people eventually notice when it goes wrong? The latest YouGov opinion poll shows 56% of Britons now think it was wrong to leave the EU - some nine years after their narrow vote to leave. The jury on Trump's tariffs is still out. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters -- Enjoying this column? Check out Reuters Open Interest (ROI), your essential new source for global financial commentary. Follow ROI on LinkedIn. Plus, sign up for my weekday newsletter, Morning Bid U.S. (by Mike Dolan; editing by Paul Simao)


Zawya
an hour ago
- Zawya
Gold rises for fourth session as US jobs data lifts Fed rate cut bets
Gold nudged higher for a fourth session on Tuesday, supported by a softer dollar and lower Treasury yields as weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data strengthened expectations of a rate cut in September. Spot gold was up 0.1% at $3,375.89 per ounce as of 0239 GMT. U.S. gold futures also gained 0.1% to $3,430.40. The dollar index hovered near a one-week low, making gold more affordable to holders of other currencies. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped to a one-month low. "Short-term momentum has improved for the bullish side of the narrative supporting gold prices is that the Fed is still in the mode to actually cut rates in September," OANDA senior market analyst Kelvin Wong said. U.S. employment growth was softer than expected in July, while non-farm payroll figures for May and June were revised down by a massive 258,000 jobs, suggesting a deterioration in labor market conditions. Traders now see a 92% chance of a September rate cut, per the CME FedWatch tool. San Francisco Fed Bank President Mary Daly said on Monday that given mounting evidence that the U.S. job market is softening and that there is no sign of persistent tariff-driven inflation, the time is nearing for rate cuts. Gold, traditionally considered a safe-haven asset during political and economic uncertainties, tends to thrive in a low-interest-rate environment. On the trade front, President Donald Trump once again threatened on Monday to raise tariffs on Indian goods over its Russian oil purchases. New Delhi called his remarks "unjustified" and vowed to protect its economic interests, deepening the trade rift between the two countries. Still, gold faces some technical resistance. "I still do not see traders pushing up aggressively above the $3,450 level. Unless we have a very clear catalyst for gold price to actually pick up this level" OANDA's Wong said. Elsewhere, spot silver rose 0.1% to $37.44 per ounce, platinum gained 0.1% to $1,330.31 and palladium was up 0.2% to $1,204.25. (Reporting by Anushree Mukherjee Brijesh Patel in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Sonia Cheema)


Arabian Post
5 hours ago
- Arabian Post
India Must Ignore Trump's Trade Tariff Trap
By Nantoo Banerjee US President Donald Trump is becoming increasingly unpredictable, if not crazy, with his freakish combination of styles to deal with countries and issues – from trade to diplomacy. The 25 percent import tariff on India since last Friday may not considerably hurt India's export trade with the US, but it threatens to develop a crack, or maybe even distrust, in the well-developed India-US diplomatic relations over the past several years. And, that should be a bigger concern before the democratic institutions in both India and the US. Trump is most unlikely to remain as the effective US president after the November 2028 election though he is selling 'Trump 2028' caps suggesting there may be loopholes to the president's two-term limit. He seems to be hell-bent on creating enough confusion around the so-called US allies for the next president to repair them easily. India is not a trade surplus country. Its global merchandise trade deficit has been growing year after year. In 2024-25, the country's trade deficit jumped to $282.83 billion from $241 billion in the previous fiscal year. The Indian government does not seem to be quite concerned. The US too is a big trade deficit country. Last year, the US recorded a historic $1.2-trillion goods trade deficit. Ironically, behind the ballooning trade gap of both the US and India is China. India's goods trade surplus with the US may have doubled over the last decade, rising from $20 billion in 2015 to $40 billion in 2025, but its trade deficit with China has more than doubled during this period, reaching a record high of $99.2 billion in 2024-25. According to the UN COMTRADE database on international trade, China had slashed down imports from India to merely $18 billion, last year. India neither protested nor took action to drastically cut imports from China. If China's anti-India import policy does not hurt the sentiments of the import-insensitive Indian government, the dumping of a mere 25 percent import tariff on India by President Trump on certain select items such as textiles, telecom, gems and jewellery, oil and gas, and food and agriculture with effect from this month should not unduly concern India. Unfortunately, the Indian government and the local media have always been more focussed and sensitive on US policies than Chinese practices. While the US trade policy has always been linked with its foreign policy, India's trade policy seems to totally ignore China's highly aggressive foreign policy that seeks to surround India with its growing military presence all around the country. The so-called Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) continues to import more and more from China. India imports a very large range of low-cost products from China, including electronics, fashion apparel, toys, and industrial machinery despite concerns over their potential impact on India's domestic industries and employment. Massive imports from China are primarily responsible for growing unemployment in India. India has been a major importer of Chinese smartphones, laptops, televisions, and other low-cost electronic devices such as clothing and textiles including activewear, casual wear, and children's fashion, to meet the country's growing local demand. India's significant portion of toy imports come from China. The current size of India's toy market is worth over $1.2 billion. Chinese manufacturers offer a wide variety of affordable and innovative toys. India also imports a wide range of other low-cost products from China, including household goods, kitchenware, baby carriages, and consumer products. The influx of cheap Chinese imports is challenging India's domestic manufacturers, potentially impacting their competitiveness and production. Leave alone the domestic job loss. Trump's trade tantrums apart, India could import a lot more from the US, instead of China, especially in areas where the US has a competitive advantage. A shift in India's trade approach could be driven by factors such as diversification of supply chains, reducing dependence on China, and potentially leveraging the US's technological and manufacturing prowess. The country's reliance on China, particularly in areas like electronics and pharmaceuticals, creates strategic vulnerabilities. India should import more from the US where it has an intrinsic strength that could help India reduce its dependence on China and build more resilient supply chains. The US continues to be a major global exporter of goods across various sectors, including machinery, electronics, and pharmaceuticals. In fact, India could utilise the services of many top US companies which are present in India and doing very good business in the country as well as exporting their wares to influence US trade and business decisions. A number of prominent US multinational companies have significant manufacturing operations in India. They include Ford (exporting engines from its Chennai plant, and making software development), General Electric (GE), Honeywell, Apple, Cisco, Cognizant and Cummins to mention a few. These US giants have chosen India for its skilled workforce and growing market. GE has a long-standing relationship with India. It manufactures various products and technologies across different sectors. Honeywell has a strong manufacturing footprint in India, focusing on aerospace, building technologies, and performance materials. Cummins, a global power technology leader, manufactures engines and related components in India. Apple Inc. has so far ignored the Trump threat to expand India operations and export back to the US. The 3M, a diversified science company, has invested in manufacturing in India to serve both the domestic and export markets. The Boeing company has been expanding its manufacturing activities, leveraging the country's growing aerospace industry. Boeing is using India's capability to outsource products and services with a network of some 300 Indian suppliers. The business is worth $1.25 billion annually. Boeing's engineering and technology centre in Bengaluru is one of its largest outside the US. Apple has also ramped up its manufacturing in India, partnering with such global leaders such as Wistron and Foxconn to produce iPhones. The US e-commerce giant Amazon has invested big in India, creating its own infrastructure and supply chain to support the growing online marketplace. Cisco, a global US leader in networking and cybersecurity, has a strong presence in the country, which covers manufacturing and research and development among others. Whimsical Trump's bid to strongly disturb the matured India-US economic and diplomatic relations may have something to do with his age. President Trump will reach 80 in next June. This may somewhat explain his growing capricious nature in dealing with the complex international issues and markedly strange utterances and suggestions slamming India and Russia as 'dead economies' after tariff stand-off and the US drilling oil in Pakistan which is 85 percent import dependent to meet its energy needs. Having road-tested a hardball tactic in his first term (January 20, 2017 to January 20, 2021), President Trump seems to have taken it to new levels. Earlier this year, a global survey found that India was the most upbeat of any nation about what a second Donald Trump presidency would mean for the country. The survey panel must be having second thoughts now. For India, it must strongly avoid falling into a Trump trap and continue to play cool. (IPA Service)