Headquartered in Reading, Berkshire, Interserve is listed on the London Stock Exchange and ranked in the FTSE 250 index. It is the seventh largest contractor in the UK.

The group has operations across the UK, continental Europe and the Middle East, and has 50,000 employees worldwide.

Interserve works in and around many types of buildings and infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, offices, shopping centres, airports, prisons, industrial plant, bridges, waterworks and roads.

The company has five divisions:

• Facilities management
• Specialist services
• Project services
• Equipment services
• PFI investments

The business, which ultimately evolved into the Interserve group, was formed in 1884 as the London and Tilbury Lighterage Company Limited. At the time, its trade involved transferring goods by barge to and from ships.

The company secured a dredging contract with the Port of London in 1888, and by the early 1940s had moved into civil engineering works. By the 1960s, building work became the company’s focus.

In 1991 Tilbury acquired contractor RM Douglas to became Tilbury Douglas and throughout the 1990s the group moved out of property development and into the support services sector.

The move was assisted by three major acquisitions, namely the purchase of the How Group – an FM and engineering firm – in 1998, Bandt, and industrial and equipment services contractor, in 1999, and FM business Building & Property Limited in 2000.

In 2000, Interservce switched from the construction sector to the support services sector in the FTSE listing. Then in 2001, to reflect the new emphasis, the group changed its name to Interserve.

Under chief executive Adrian Ringrose, in 2003, the group discontinued several non-core activities in order to focus on its support services, maintenance and building.

The company then generated solid organic growth through 2004, 2005 and 2006 and in July 2006 it acquired MacLellan, a facilities management provider.