Mace has launched an ambitious five-year business strategy, setting new targets including a 20% growth in margin each year, achieving £3bn in annual revenue and aiming to employ more than 8,000 people by 2026 across its four Engines for Growth: develop, construct, consult and operate. 

In addition to its ambitious growth plans, the company’s 2026 Business Strategy is described as a drive to become a more diverse, purpose-led company - responding to societal changes brought about by the global climate emergency and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic by setting out a radical vision of a more sustainable, more inclusive and more innovative built environment.

Mace says it will achieve this by targeting a diverse range of markets and sectors to deliver global growth across its four Engines, including housing, pharmaceuticals, infrastructure and the data centre market. 

It says its offer to clients will evolve to focus on creating a fundamental transformation in how the built environment is delivered and operated; reducing carbon, driving the adoption of a digital-first, ‘construction to production’ approach; and prioritising the creation of social value. 

To bring its new purpose to life, Mace has announced three new strategic priorities: to pursue a more sustainable world, to grow together and to deliver distinctive value. Under these three priorities, Mace has set out a number of key goals and new initiatives, which include: 

• Build on its success achieving Net Zero Carbon in 2020 for scope 1 & 2 emissions - targeting a 10% year on year reduction in emissions and only offsetting the outstanding carbon to gold standards.
• Working across its entire value chain, aiming to reduce scope 3 emissions by more than one million tonnes by 2026 and by 2030 all emissions by 50%.
• Continuing to drive social value across every project and programme it works on, generating more than £700m value to society each year by 2026. 
• Become the most inclusive employer of choice in the industry, reducing the gender and ethnicity pay gap by 10% year on year and meeting the ambitious recruitment targets set out in its 2020-2023 Diversity and Inclusion Strategy. 
• Radically transform how it delivers the built environment, adopting a ‘construction to production’ approach across our construction and consultancy businesses. It is targeting to achieve 90% of its work delivered using modern methods of construction by 2026.  
• Deliver growth through expanding its global presence in the development, infrastructure, built environment and operations markets, with a particular sector focus on healthcare, data centres and town centre regeneration.
• Build its presence in a number of key countries and regional markets across the world, driving further growth in its mature businesses in North America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia Pacific; as well as continuing to build its presence in growth areas like Peru.  
• Increase investment in research and development across the group up to 3.5% of its annual revenue. 

Mark Reynolds, Mace’s group chief executive, said: “Our new purpose – to redefine the boundaries of ambition – is a reflection of Mace’s exceptional heritage and our bold vision for the future. The last twelve months have shown that companies in all sectors must urgently change how we do business, and our new strategy responds to two of the great challenges of our time: addressing climate change and creating a more diverse and inclusive global society. 

“By putting purpose at the heart of our strategy, our vision is that by 2026 Mace will be leading the way across the globe in disrupting how the built environment is developed, built and operated – from creating new models for town centre regeneration and housing delivery driven by social value to working with our clients to radically transform how we construct buildings and infrastructure.

“Our strength as a business has always been our exceptional people and their industry-defining ambition and expertise. By setting out our purpose and priorities clearly, we want to put our colleagues at the centre of everything we do; growing together to realise a bold vision of the future of the company over the next five years.”

The strategy was launched internally in January 2021, with the company saying it is already shaping its business operations around the globe, alongside a new programme of capital investment that will see the creation of new business units and potential acquisitions in strategic target markets over the next six months. 

The news follows hot on the heels of Andrew Jackson’s appointment as Mace’s new chief operating officer for construction, effective from April 2021. Jackson replaces Mark Castle, who is stepping down to become a non-executive director.