The Rothen Group

With a fleet of 200 craft and contracts for a host of canal-related work, the Rothen Group is a household name in the inland boating industry. Yet, the company is barely a decade old. Andrew Denny finds out more…

The dark green workboats of the Rothen Group have now become almost as familiar a sight around the waterways as the bright blue maintenance craft of the Canal & River Trust.  What is especially remarkable is that this young company has grown – from a standing start – to become the UK’s main supplier of all types of floating plant equipment on the canals in little more than a decade. 

The Rothen Group now has around 200 boats, and runs a wide and diverse range of hire contracts for different industries requiring marine construction services. It also has a near-national coverage on the CRT network, and claims a special understanding of local knowledge about canal infrastructure. 

Yet it all began with one man: Ian Rothen was introduced to canals and their industry from birth. Born to a canal family in the Midlands as recently as 1984 – Rothen’s Wharf at Atherstone was a familiar loading point for coal from the Coventry coalfields – he first worked on the canals aged nine and bought his first work-boat, a traditional ex-carrying craft, at only 15. That boat is still in use and, following its refurbishment in 2017, is now employed as a specialist crane boat in the Rothen fleet.

It was as recently as 2012 when the young man decided to start his own business, independent from the family firm, initially as Ian Rothen Ltd.

At the time, with the (then) new Canal & River Trust keen to subcontract as much of its maintenance as possible, it  was keen to find contractors with canal nous at their heart. And Ian’s experience, from birth and with his own historic boat, was invaluable. 

Within three years of steady expansion he was able to move from working regionally to nationally. As the company expanded and widened its image beyond just one man, Ian rebranded in 2015 to the Rothen Group.

At the same time, the group began investing heavily, expanding its fleet of specialist workboats and recruiting experienced staff. A big opportunity came when he was able to buy assets from the Aldridge Piling Equipment hire company. With piling being a key canal contracting skill, he secured his status as one of the largest holders of piling hammers in the country.

Remembering roots

But Ian has never forgotten his canal roots. His presence at historic boat gatherings, especially with his narrowboat Archimedes, is a regular reminder of his obsession with canal heritage. And he always hankers for redundant old working boats for his fleet.

For British Waterways and the Canal & River Trust, it had long been conventional business wisdom to sell these older boats for private leisure use. Maintenance costs, it is argued, are lower with new boats. 

Ian is sceptical of this. Or he has at least long recognised that old boats could not only retain their heritage status, but also their quality. In 2017 he acquired four old ‘Blue Top’ River Class steel narrowboats – Aye, Axe, Lyn and Wey – built by the British Waterways Board in the early 1960s in a new tough design to replace the old wooden butties common up to that time.  With their extra-strong hulls, unlike traditional working narrowboats, the Blue Tops needed no bracing chains to keep the sides together. Ian duly installed them with modern dredging equipment, making them useful when dredging in tight situations, such as narrow locks. 

Major milestone 

In 2018 Rothen bought some canalside commercial land at Mancetter, near Atherstone. Using its new piling equipment and increasing expertise, the company created a bespoke wharf – a rare example in recent times of new wharfage on the canals for the loading of boats and materials. 

The company also built a full workshop facility to allow for the maintenance and storage of further vessels. This extra capacity allowed it in 2020 to buy new weed-clearance boats. The company now has 16 such craft – the best-equipped weed-clearance fleet in the country.

The company hit further milestones in 2021 with an overall turnover of over £3m, 20 full-time staff (including three female tug-boat drivers) and the expertise to manage a growing network of specialist subcontractors. Rothen now has over 100 workboats and 70 specialist small plant devices, including clam shells, piling hammers and diggers.

Its large fleet was a key factor behind the Canal & River Trust’s recent agreement to let it join the London weed-clearance network. With a four-year contract signed, Rothen is now is a familiar sight on London’s canals for weed control.

A move into marinas

Ian Rothen had long wondered about a lonely and abandoned water-filled quarry just around the corner from his new wharf at Mancetter. Could it be a marina? Eventually he signed a deal to acquire it – and Rothen was one of the few civil engineering companies to not only understand its potential but also dig out, convert, pile and equip it to full modern marina standards.  

The new Mancetter Marina opened in 2022. Modest at 65 berths, it nevertheless extended Rothen’s expertise into marina operation. It brought the company into a new area, managing local wildlife and ecosystems through its bowl-like shape.

Now the Rothen Group has started to look at other areas. In 2023 it took on its first apprentice, and in 2024 it reached 40 staff members, and turned the first sod on a new office. And it’s gone further. As we were going to press, we learned that Rothen had bought Fazeley Mill Marina, at the junction of the Coventry and Birmingham & Fazeley canals, from hire-boat chain ABC. This is a game-changer for the company, turning it from a canal contractor into a multi-strand waterways operator. Where might it go from here?  

Rothen has reached £7.2m turnover in 2024 and now operates 200 workboats. Over a decade after its founding as a one-man operation, the company is now established as perhaps the UK’s specialist operator of waterways civil contractor and marine plant hire. And it is perhaps only beginning as a leisure marina operator.

The fact that all this has come about from Ian Rothen’s origin as a child of the canals with the waterways’ interests at heart, rather than as a hard-nosed businessman, is heartening, even endearing. 

Find out more
The Rothen Group

therothengroup.co.uk

01827 215715