John Laing Homes history

His eldest son, James, born in 1816, joined him upon finishing school.

He finished the house in 1848 and sold it the same year, thus giving birth to the Laing construction firm.

James and Ann raised their family in one of the houses and sold the other. It is uncertain why in 1867 James sold everything and moved the family to Carlisle, where he worked as a laborer until he managed to start another business of his own.

John Laing's son John William Laing, born in 1879, was active in the business before he was 20 years old, so active that the firm changed its name to John Laing and Son.

When James Laing died in 1882, John Laing took over the business and began to procure larger contracts for public projects such as the Carlisle electricity works and repairs on the local castle.

By 1910 John William Laing was the sole proprietor of the firm and had begun to organize it into the successful international business it is today.

Laing's largest source of work, however, was the Air Ministry, for which the company built aerodromes, airfields, equipment depots, and the underground headquarters for the Bomber Command of World War II. The company began constructing three new aerodromes in October 1939 and 14 more the next year.

The firm continued the coal mining it had begun during the war, extracting 12,555 tons in 1947.

The fifth generation of Laings, William Kirby Laing and James Maurice Laing, joined the firm before World War II. In 1950 the company established its first regional center, in Bristol.

In 1953, net assets reached £6.6 million, and the company employed 15,000 people at its building sites and offices.

Consequently, in 1987 the company established its Energy, Technology and Environment division which offers high-technology services, from computer-aided road design to nuclear waste processing.

The new division is expected to provide 10% of Laing's profits by 1990.

That year, both sales and profits increased over 1996 figures due in part to the completion of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

By 1997, the company operated with four main divisions--construction, homes, property, and investments.

As the company celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1998, it faced falling profits due to cost overruns with the Millennium project and continued problems within its construction division related to competition and overcapacity.

During 2000, the company announced it would sell its construction business, which suffered a loss of £88.9 million that year.