The Billy bookcase approach to structural steelwork

Outlook

Talking of bolts and holes, as anyone who’s ever been to Ikea will know, trying to put the wrong ones together can be disastrous.

Actually it can be pretty disastrous if you line up the right ones and find that they don’t quite fit.

However, the concept is something that seems to have passed the good people at steelwork contractor Severfield by. Last month it took a £6m hit after some giant bolts broke away from the structure of London’s Cheesegrater, otherwise known as 122 Leadenhall Street.

Now it seems that there has been another problem with bolts, this time the US-made ones at the new US embassy building.

They’re having to be replaced, although it has been reported that the financial impact of doing so on Severfield will be rather less than the cost of the Cheesegrater debacle. That should come as a relief to its shareholders.

All the same, perhaps someone might like to suggest the board takes a trip to Ikea en route to its next away day. Directors could then spend some time with bolts and hammers and Allen keys at whatever country hotel they’ve chosen. Perhaps shareholders could table it as motion at the next annual meeting.