Top 100 contractors: 2025’s leaders and 2026’s ones to watch

The UK arm of Austrian contracting giant STRABAG burst into Glenigan’s ranking of the Top 100 contractors in 2025 to take top spot.

STRABAG landed the main contracts on the £2.9 billion Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme to repair 109 km of deteriorating pipework from the Lake District to Greater Manchester for United Utilities (Project ID: 19384153).

Unranked a year ago, that bumper workload was sufficient to claim first place in the Top 100 Contractors for STRABAG in 2025.

Capital Mace

Ranked 16^th in 2024, Mace finished second in the Top 100 contractors league table last year by quadrupling its annual order book after a successful year bidding for major schemes in London.

Wins for Mace in the capital in 2025 included the £700 million contract on the British Library extension (Project ID: 15291949), the £600 million Euston Tower Science Innovation Hub (Project ID: 23220803), and the £200 million Edge Liverpool Street commercial development (Project ID: 19267813).

Kier clout

Kier last topped the annual table in 2022 but finished third after growing its yearly contracts haul by 60% in the last 12 months.

The company’s biggest win was a £683.8 million prison in Glasgow (Project ID: 19429386).

The justice sector proved particularly lucrative for Kier, which also landed a £245.7 million package of work on the Prison Contingency Response Programme (Project ID: 25552635) and a £125 million houseblocks scheme at HMP Lancaster (Project ID: 23237071).

Morgan Sindall fit-out success

Table toppers in 2023 and 2024, Morgan Sindall finished fourth last year. The company did win the greatest number of actual contracts in 2025, with 201 jobs booked, worth a total of £2 billion.

Morgan Sindall’s haul included major jobs for its fit-out subsidiary Overbury in the City of London, including a £250 million package on the Panorama St Paul’s office scheme (Project ID: 25160974), and a £130 million deal at 2 Aldermanbury Square (Project ID: 25581841).

Bovis return

Bovis was one of the most famous names in UK construction before being bought by Lendlease, which did not even make the Top 50 in 2024. Lendlease sold the business in 2025, when the Bovis name was revived, and the year proved fruitful with annual orders ballooning to nearly £1.4 billion.

Successful awards for the newly independent Bovis included the £330 million 60 Gracechurch Street commercial scheme in London (Project ID: 24112367) and the revitalised business finished the year in fifth.

Laing O’Rourke holds firm

Laing O’Rourke held onto its place in the Top 10 on the back of a handful of major awards.

The largest were two major sections – valued at £511 million (Project ID: 25304101) and £408 million, respectively (Project ID: 25349709) – at the Animal Diseases Research Facility in Weybridge, Surrey.

Laing O’Rourke’s 2025 order book was also boosted by a £300 million prison scheme in Aylesbury (Project ID: 21094516).

 M Group motors in

M Group only just squeezed into the Top 100 in 2024 in 95^th place, but motored into the Top 10 last year after winning nearly £1 billion-worth of work.

This ranged from a £60 million overhaul of Ilkley sewage treatment works for Yorkshire Water (Project ID: 24163443) to an £840 million highways maintenance contract for Oxfordshire County Council (Project ID: 23187592).

Busy major players

Four members of the Top 10 boasted annual orders totalling more than £2 billion, while nine had £1 billion plus order books, which promise a busy year ahead for the industry’s major players.