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About Us

The UK’s leading ground engineering contractor

Since being founded in 1984 and listed on AIM in 2016, Van Elle has grown to become the UK’s largest and most diverse ground engineering and geotechnical contractor.  We undertake over 1000 projects a year and have built a reputation for delivering safe and innovative solutions and providing high-quality service to our customers.

The Group comprises expert teams that are able to design and deliver optimal techniques across a 130 string UK based rig fleet.  Our breadth of capabilities spans open site piling, specialist and restricted access piling, modular foundation systems and a wide range of geotechnical specialisms across the infrastructure, residential and construction sectors.   

With integrated specialist support from Strata Geotechnics, experts in ground investigation and testing, ScrewFast Foundations, leaders in helical piling and modular steel foundations, Rock and Alluvium, piling specialists, Albion Drilling, experts in piling and drilling, and Van Elle Construction Training, providers of industry-leading training, we offer unrivalled capabilities and expertise to the construction industry.

Principal Activities

Van Elle’s end-to-end solutions encompass ground investigation, general and specialist piling, rail engineering services, modular foundations and ground improvement and stabilisation services in a wide range of environments.

The Group reports through three primary segments:

  • General Piling delivers our larger rotary bored, CFA and driven piling solutions to customers in a broad range of end markets, operating principally on open site construction projects
  • Specialist Piling provides ground engineering solutions in environments with access and operational constraints which require the use of specialist piling rigs and techniques, including ground stabilisation techniques and an extensive on-track rail capability
  • Ground Engineering Services comprises our housing activities including our piling and Smartfoot modular foundation systems and our geotechnical and testing services operating through the independent Strata Geotechnics brand

Strategic Markets

The Group is focussed on three core, UK market sectors to which it offers a full range of integrated ground engineering services; deploying an unrivalled range of rigs and expertise on both a regional and national basis:

  • Residential; private and social housebuilders and larger residential developers
  • Infrastructure; rail, highways, power & energy and water, flooding & coastal
  • Regional Construction; public and private construction programmes and regional developments