Our Business

Cracknore and Kilbride are the lead names for the private group of companies whose core business is the investment and development of energy and rail related infrastructure projects.

The two founder principals, Colin Banyard and Ian Steer, are supported by Jackie Burns, Finance Director, and a small team of specialists in engineering, project management and development. Behind the core team there is also an outsource group of professionals who we work with on a continuous basis, who are all specialists in their field of expertise.

History

The business was founded in the mid 1990's after the two principals met and worked together supporting the acquisition and development of the Bristol Port Company. Then followed a number of major infrastructure schemes in the energy and rail sectors.

The original business plan was formed around a request from a major car manufacturer, through its logistics supplier, to procure a new rail connected distribution hub in the centre of the UK. The founding directors began working with a specialist USA based rail design and construction company who assisted in providing new technologies for loading/unloading and storage systems in the rail transport sector. A new venture was formed called Transdevelopment International Limited. This provided a number of schemes to other major motor manufacturers and also progressed into other industries. Cracknore Kilbride still has a strong relationship with their USA partners who have offices in Atlanta, Portland and Mexico. There is a frequent exchange of ideas, staff collaboration and general cooperation on projects.

One of the sites acquired originally for such a scheme for Land Rover was at Marchwood on Southampton Water. The previous owner had promoted the site for energy uses and Cracknore Kilbride continued to support these projects. An Energy from Waste plant was built at Marchwood by Hampshire Waste Services Limited and is currently providing 25MW of power from household waste.
In October 2009, a management buy-out took place to buy a number of companies and projects in the rail infrastructure sector. These include a residential community rail line in Tavistock and a substantial terminal and distribution centre in Stretton.

Along with our strong presence in the rail industry, the Energy sector has become another main interest of Cracknore Kilbride since August 2011 and future plans involve the delivery of energy schemes for our client base. This led to the creation of a key joint venture, called Rolton Kilbride, with a leader in the UK renewable energy sector, Rolton Group. Rolton Kilbride's unique selling point is as a distributed energy company that builds embedded power and heat generation assets for high energy use businesses, communities and large-scale development projects. The plan is to the implement six schemes in various parts of the UK with the potential to generate a combined total of 100MW of new renewable power.

Our business model has remained the same since inception. Projects, whether rail or energy, commence with a client requirement and our USP is the understanding of how to translate that requirement into a viable and deliverable proposal.

This combines the key components of delivery of complex projects to client needs, dealing with difficult consent processes and creating investment assets supported by strong covenants with mid to long term secure income streams.

Company Details

Cracknore Investment

An investment company which has two property investments and ownership of most of the companies in the group. The properties are:

Veolia ‘Energy from Waste’ Site, Marchwood
This 25 MW energy from waste facility site on a 10 acre site is let to Hampshire Waste Services Limited who operate the Integra domestic waste programme for Hampshire County Council.

TIP Trailers site, Cracknore Hard Lane, Marchwood
This 5.76 acre site is let to TIP Trailers Services UK Limited, a subsidiary of HNA Group.

Cracknore Developments

A trading company which specialises in procuring sites for renewable energy schemes including obtaining the necessary consents and technology partners to ‘build out’ the plants through Rolton Kilbride, the joint venture company.This was set up in November 2013 to bring together the knowledge and skills of the Cracknore Kilbride and Rolton teams, specifically in the distributed renewable energy market. A number of substantial projects are making progress and for more information on Rolton Kilbride and its current portfolio visit the Rolton Kilbride area of our website.

Subsidiary Companies

Kilbride Infrastructure

This company serviced the principle energy enquiries prior to the setting up of Rolton Kilbride. It has a number of interests in residual projects the most notable of which is a 10 MW Gasification Plant at Hoddesdon. This is consented and has just completed its funding arrangements and is about go into the construction phase.

Kilbride Holdings

This company is the holding company of the rail infrastructure subsidiaries. As a sub-group, the companies specialise in the procurement of rail projects, taking forward the original core business of the founding partners. The business model is similar to the energy sector in that projects usually start with a specific requirement and the Kilbride team, following initial consultancy based advice, delivers the projects on a fully funded turnkey basis given a sufficient covenant.

Special Purpose Companies

Kilbride Rail Terminals

This company owns a rail terminal that serviced the Honda Plant at Swindon until December 2010. Kilbride carried out and funded the security, access road and fees to establish the operational use of the terminal. Proposals are now being considered for the next phase of development for the rail terminal at Swindon.

Kilbride Stretton

This company is pursuing the development of a Strategic Rail Freight Interchange at a site close to the M6 near Stretton, through its 50% interest in Kilbride (Four Ashes) LLP. In addition to a major rail interchange there will be 5 million sq ft of supporting warehousing with a future Gross Development Value of approximately £450 million.

Kilbride Resources

This company has a development management agreement over a 59 acre business park site at Inverurie just north of Aberdeen (Phase 2). Planning consent was granted for the first phase, and the land was sold to an outdoors Retailing Company. The options for the next phase are being reviewed.

Kilbride Community Rail

This was Kilbride's first venture into a ‘passenger rail’ based project. Options were secured on land at Tavistock in Devon and Bovis Homes have been signed up to deliver the housing. Planning permission has been obtained for a scheme of up to 750 houses, which will provide funding for the reinstatement of a disused rail line connecting to Plymouth (originally closed after the Beeching Report).

Kilbride Rail

This is the consultancy area of the rail business where projects are being undertaken on a fee paying basis.