IN Brief:
- Mace topped the May contracts league after securing around £320m of new work.
- The contractor’s largest win was the £250m John Innes Centre and Sainsbury Laboratory research hub.
- The wider market remained subdued, with top-50 order value falling to its lowest level in more than a year.
Mace topped the May construction contracts league after securing around £320m of new work, led by the £250m John Innes Centre and Sainsbury Laboratory plant and microbial research hub in Norwich.
The contractor also secured an office upgrade job in Belgravia, placing it ahead of Hill Partnerships, McLaren Construction, and Glencar in the monthly ranking. Hill Partnerships took second place after securing two London housing projects, while McLaren ranked third.
The Norwich research hub is the standout project in Mace’s May total. The scheme will create a major plant and microbial science facility, bringing together laboratory, office, meeting, training, catering, and social spaces to support research activity at the John Innes Centre and Sainsbury Laboratory campus.
Research buildings of this type carry a heavier technical load than standard commercial schemes. Laboratory environments require resilient building services, specialist ventilation, contamination control, vibration management, secure access, digital infrastructure, and detailed commissioning. The contractor’s role extends beyond shell and core delivery into coordination of systems that determine whether the building can support science safely and reliably.
Mace’s May performance contrasts with a softer wider market. The top 50 contractors recorded total contract awards of around £2.86bn, down from £3bn in the previous month and the lowest monthly total for more than a year. Strabag remained top of the rolling 12-month ranking, supported by its long-term Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme contract, with Mace second and Balfour Beatty third.
Monthly league tables can shift quickly when large projects move into contract, but the reduced top-50 total reflects a market still marked by hesitation. Major technical buildings, infrastructure, healthcare, public-sector projects, and selected commercial upgrades continue to progress, while some private-sector schemes remain exposed to finance costs, planning risk, tenant demand, and weaker development viability.
The strength of research and life sciences work is especially notable. Universities, research institutes, healthcare organisations, and public funders continue to invest in specialist buildings that support long-term innovation capacity. These projects tend to require strong early contractor involvement, robust design management, and close coordination between clients, consultants, specialist subcontractors, and equipment suppliers.
For the wider supply chain, lower monthly order value affects confidence and workload visibility. Subcontractors, manufacturers, fit-out specialists, M&E suppliers, and consultants all rely on a steady flow of awards to plan labour, capacity, and procurement. When headline work becomes concentrated in fewer large schemes, competition can intensify elsewhere and smaller packages may become more vulnerable to delay.
Mace’s position in May shows that high-value, knowledge-led buildings remain active despite the broader slowdown. The coming months will show whether delayed private schemes return to procurement, or whether major awards continue to cluster around public, institutional, infrastructure, and specialist technical projects.
