McGurran Civils cut tender preparation to 122 hours on a £46M retirement community
Connected estimating, digital takeoff and job costing helped McGurran move from spreadsheets and email quotes to a single live budget, from tender through to delivery, on the Boughton Heath Retirement Community in Chester.
Boughton Heath Retirement Community
A £46 million, 155-apartment retirement development across six residential buildings in Chester, delivered over a 111-week programme.
McGurran Civils priced enabling works, earthworks, drainage, utilities and foundations in Methvin, then carried the winning tender into a live project budget rather than rebuilding it after award.
Every design revision had previously meant revisiting quantities, updating worksheets and re-verifying pricing by hand. Connecting quantities, resources and cost in one workflow cut that cycle and gave the project team a budget they could actually run.
Company Profile · McGurran Civils
Boughton Heath Retirement Community
A £46 million, 155-apartment retirement development across six residential buildings in Chester, delivered over a 111-week programme.
Consistency across quantities, pricing and a fixed deadline
Every design revision meant estimators had to revisit quantities, update worksheets and re-verify pricing by hand, increasing the risk of omissions and version-control errors.
Before Methvin
Commercial Objectives
One workflow connecting quantities, resources and cost
The key differentiator: every rate could be traced back to its underlying labour, plant and material components.
Digital PDF Takeoff
- Direct quantity capture from drawings
First-Principles Estimating
- Labour, plant and material build-ups
Assembly Libraries
- Reusable trench, pavement and foundation assemblies
Global Resource Updates
- Instant pricing revisions across the estimate
BoQ Integration
- Live quantities linked directly to pricing
Job Costing
- Budget tracking against the original tender
What changed in the commercial workflow
| Area | Before Methvin | With Methvin |
|---|---|---|
| Measurement | Manual PDF measurement by hand | Digital Quantity capture from drawings |
| Pricing | Spreadsheets Multiple Excel workbooks for different trades | First-principles Labour, plant and material build-ups |
| Quantities | Duplicate Repeated transfer into pricing schedules | Linked Live quantities connected to the BoQ |
| Supplier quotes | Email Quotations managed through inboxes | Compared £45,000 in procurement opportunities identified |
| Budget | Rebuilt Budget rebuilt from scratch after award | Live Winning tender converted into the project budget |
From static tender to live operational budget
Tender preparation, supplier comparison and monthly commercial reporting all sat on the same connected cost record.
- ✓Tender preparation reduced from approximately 180 to 122 hours
- ✓Supplier comparison identified approximately £45,000 in procurement opportunities across materials and plant
- ✓Monthly commercial reporting reduced from three working days to approximately 13 hours
- ✓First-pass pricing error rate held under 4% during tender validation
Quantified annual return on a £4.5M civil package
Labour, productivity and rework savings on Boughton Heath produced a 1.2-month payback against the Methvin investment.
| Value Driver | Basis | Estimated Annual Value |
|---|---|---|
| Labour & Productivity | Annual | £81,000 |
| Reduced Rework | Annual | £47,000 |
| Total Annual Savings | £128,000 |
What the commercial team said
Our objective was to create a single commercial workflow from takeoff through to project delivery. By connecting quantities, pricing and job costing, the estimating team gained greater visibility, and the project team inherited a live budget rather than a static tender.
Key Takeaways
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