Lyndon Hives
Pre-Construction Director, McLaren Construction (International), Dubai

As Preconstruction Director for McLaren Construction LLC, It was a great pleasure to invited be involved in the panel discussions and to present our ‘Open Book and Partnership Approach in Construction’ to the key players in the Region. This approach is rarely adopted here but times are changing, so the positive approach from our Chef Middle East Project Case Study and further discussions with delegates after the SCLG Summit made it extremely worthwhile.

We are working with many Clients (most under Preconstruction Services Agreements) who have changed their mindset from one of ‘I’m not sure I am getting fully market tested value for money by single sourcing in this way’ to one where they understand that early contractor involvement is vital to help understand the drivers of the project, maximize efficiencies, understand and mitigate risk, undertake continuous value engineering exercises and reduce overall timescales of design and construction, thus overall reducing the currently most important factor of cost.

The early agreement and single source approach makes it a live project from the start and gains confidence and buys in from the supply chain who are willing to offer competitive solutions from day 1.

This approach helps to reduce the overall time and cost, gain early cost certainty for the Client as well as engendering a trustworthy relationship from conception through to completion.

McLaren are also in somewhat of a unique position where we can assist in this way as well as provide suitable Clients with construction finance solutions through UKEF (UK Export Finance) at very competitive interest rates and substantial loan repayment durations to suit our Client’s requirements

Further benefits of the finance option is that certain professional fees and operational equipment (MHE and racking) can also be included in the agreement making it an even more attractive proposal for most of our logistics Clients.