M J Gleeson

History

The business was founded by Michael Joseph Gleeson, the official date given by the company being 1903. Having travelled from Cloonmore, County Galway a small hamlet in the West of Ireland, to Sheffield to find work as a bricklayer. There he joined an Irish family business specialising in housing development and building contracting. A few years later, he married his employer's eldest daughter. In due course, he inherited his father-in-law's firm and changed its name to M J Gleeson in 1915.

Michael Gleeson operated as a contractor and a developer in the Sheffield area, and owned cinemas and a racetrack. The firm began taking contracts in southeast England in 1930 and in 1932 Michael sent his nephew John Patrick 'Jack' Gleeson to manage the embryonic housing developments. Gleeson began with building an estate of some 750 houses in Cheam, followed by smaller estates in Ewell and Sutton, all at the time in Surrey.

During the Second World War, Gleeson was heavily engaged in the construction of aerodromes for military use; this work developed the firm's civil engineering capability that it would put to good use in the conflict's aftermath. During 1955, the company relaunched its housing and property development activities. Following Gleeson's flotation in 1960, increasing attention was paid to its civil engineering contracts. Such contracts included power stations, sewage works and sea defenses.

Like his uncle before him, Jack had no sons and brought in his nephew to succeed him; Dermot Gleeson had been working in the political arena and first joined the Board as a non executive director in 1973; he joined the company full time in 1979, became deputy managing director in 1981 and chief executive in 1988.

During the early 1990s recession, the firm decided to increase its commitment to the private housing sector. Colroy, a smaller rival company was acquired in 1991; three years later, Gleeson also purchased the residential business of the Portman Building Society. In early 2000, Gleeson purchased the specialist rail contractor Mabey Construction; this move launched the firm into Britain's recently privatised rail sector. Later that same year, the firm recorded a pre-tax profit of £16.1 million (£13.4 million), up 20 per cent, while turnover rose 17 per cent to £349 million; the company's order books were also claimed to be running at record levels.