About the Group

The Barnes Group is a family and management owned, highly successful, values-led business with two main operating divisions, Bower Fuller and Barnes Construction. Bower Fuller specialise in mechanical and electrical contracting whilst Barnes Construction is a regional building contractor. Both operating divisions have their head office in on Ransomes Europark in Ipswich, Suffolk.

The Barnes Group was first established in 1978 by David Barnes, who led the business up until his death in 1995 when his wife, Mary, became Chair. She oversaw the Group up until 2001 when William Barnes, their son, came into the business in her place. For the past 22 years, William has chaired the Group alongside the directors who have all worked in the business for many years. The directors are highly experienced, extremely loyal and have huge respect for the family and the business that The Barnes Group has become. The directors are also all shareholders in the business.

The ethos of the business is built on the principle that a collaborative and fair approach delivers the best results for everyone involved. There is a very careful, thoughtful, and decisive thread that runs through the business, where long-term, positive and engaging relationships with clients, subcontractors and wider project teams are centre stage. Testament to their approach is that many of their strongest relationships date back to when The Barnes Group was founded over 45 years ago.

Barnes Construction is the larger of the two divisions and delivers construction projects throughout East Anglia, ranging up to around £30million. Its turnover is around £100m. The projects are predominantly commercial, with some niche residential projects.

Bower Fuller is a growing mechanical and electrical sub-contractor with offices in Suffolk and London and turns over around £17m. While the two divisions often collaborate on projects, there is a strict arm’s length arrangement, and each operates independently of the other. This arms-length approach is very important to both businesses relationships with third-partie as well as being healthy internally.