Newton Aycliffe construction firm Finley Structures is helping a Cramlington-based oil and gas manufacturer to expand with a new facility.

PII Pipeline Solutions, part of the GE Oil & Gas group, currently works from a series of buildings on the North Nelson Industrial Estate in Cramlington, where it specialises in generating pipeline inspection data for clients.

Now the business is expanding with a new building manufacturing and office base.

Finley Structures was awarded a contract from main contractor Bowmer and Kirkland to design, fabricate and erect a 340-tonne frame for the £11m development.

The Aycliffe firm has also installed two pre-cast concrete stair cases, and employed local labour to erect the steel.

When completed, the property will be made up of a 74,110 sq ft, two-storey office and double height industrial space with associated car parking, service yards and landscaping, all spread across 16 acres.

Finley Structures operations manager Jim Graham said: “We’ve continued our ongoing relationship with Bowmer and Kirkland by delivering an all-round design and build contract for this new facility.

“When completed the site will provide a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for PII Pipeline Solutions as well as new office space.”

PII currently has more than 650 people across 11 international sites including around 200 in Cramlington.

The expansion plans – which have been funded by its landowners, investment fund LXi REIT, which has let the facility to PII – were given full approval by Northumberland County Council earlier this year.

The application then said: “The proposal is for the initial demolition of an existing warehouse building and the construction of a new state-of-the-art manufacturing/repair and refurbishment centre including new two-storey offices and amenity facilities.

“Once complete GE will transfer all staff and workshops into the new facility and the remaining office building will be demolished to provide a redevelopment opportunity.

“The business park is an established employment site and forms an important part of the city council balanced portfolio of employment land and is one of the key locations available for general business development.”

Family-run steel firm Finley Structures is hoping to benefit from what it says is a construction boom in the education sector.

The Newton Aycliffe-based fabrication specialists have won two more education contracts which come off the back of several projects in the sector over the last year.

Finley Structures have previously helped to build Roundhay School in Leeds for Interserve Construction, Ryde Academy on the Isle of Wight for Sir Robert McAlpine, Doncaster Sixth Form College for BAM Construction, George Mitchell School in London for Bowmer and Kirkland and SEMH School in Seacroft, East Leeds, also for Interserve.

The firm worked on a 337-tonne project for Bowmer and Kirkland, to fabricate and erect Krishna Avanti School in Edgware, London, in 2017.

And Finley also fabricated and erected the steel frame for The Curve in Middlesbrough – Teesside University’s eye-catching structure in Middlesbrough which has won a series of accolades.

The £20m Curve building, which opened in 2015, was rated ‘Excellent’ by the Building Research Establishment as part of its BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) standard, the world’s longest established method of assessing, rating, and certifying the sustainability of buildings, and also won three architecture awards at the 2016 Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) North East Awards.

Finley Structures has now won two new education contracts involving a total of nearly 1,000 tonnes of steel – a 625-tonne contract at Bannerdale School in Sheffield for Bam Construction which is now complete, and a 360-tonne project at the University of Hull for Henry Boot Construction.

Finley’s estimating manager Andrew Workman said: “We’ve completed several projects in the education sector over the last year and these two new contracts underline our reputation in the industry.

“We’re seeing a definite upward curve in education contracts at the moment, with particularly universities looking to expand.

“Newcastle, Durham, Teesside, Leeds, Lincoln, York, Warwick, Coventry, Birmingham and Bristol universities are all building, and we’re tendering for a lot of work in that sector at the moment, which is very promising.”

Finley is working for the first time with national contractor Henry Boot Construction, which has sites in Derbyshire and Manchester, on a new Sports Village at the University of Hull, involving 360 tonnes of steel.

And Finley has recently completed work for Bam Construction at Bannerdale School, Sheffield, involving 625 tonnes of steel as well as installing pre-cast concrete floor planks, four pre-cast concrete stair cases, a lift shaft and ground beams.

“The education sector, in particular, has been a significant area of growth for us in recent months.

“Ironically, it was this sector which really kept us going through the recession post 2008-09,” added Workman.

Finley Structures last year completed the 550-tonne steelwork on the Riverwalk regeneration development in Durham city. The family firm, founded by John Finley in 2000, has over the years worked on a number of high-profile contracts, including Hitachi Rail’s new factory on Aycliffe Business Park, which opened in September 2015, Nissan’s new Leaf factory in Washington and a new factory for car parts maker Nifco in Eaglescliffe.

Finley Structures boss Julie Raistrick is calling on businesses to be vigilant after a “brazen” £210,000 theft in Newton Aycliffe.

Around 60 tonnes of fabricated steel was taken from Finley Structures’ premises on Aycliffe Business Park in the early evening of Saturday January 20.

The thieves used specialist equipment to take the fully-loaded trailers, one belonging to Finley and three belonging to sister company SCH Site Services, from the same yard.

CCTV footage shows a truck arriving on the park and passing by ROF 59 activity centre at 6.14pm – it takes thieves just 13 minutes to break the locks and gain entry to Finley’s land, hitch the first trailer containing 15 tonnes of steel and make off.

Steel worth £90,000 and four trailers each worth £30,000 were taken during the two-hour operation.

Finley’s joint managing director Julie Raistrick is now calling on police to install better security around its premises – and is urging other businesses to be vigilant.

Ironically, the theft comes at a time when Raistrick has moved to reassure staff and clients that the firm has not been “adversely affected” by the collapse of construction giant Carillion.

Raistrick said: “The irony is we have luckily avoided being hit by Carillion, but then we suffer from a brazen theft.

“The culprits who did it are clearly part of a professional outfit – they had all the gear and they had the brass neck to come back four times over a two-hour period.

“We have CCTV footage of the theft commencing at 6.14pm following the trailers to Faverdale Business Park, the trailers were dropped there and then collected during the night in to the early hours of Sunday.

“We have since found out that a further 12 trailers have been stolen from different fabricators so appears to be a nationwide problem.”

Meanwhile, writing in the company’s latest newsletter which is circulated to staff and clients, Raistrick says: “The current climate of our industry has been brought to the fore recently with the high-profile news surrounding Carillion.

“We have worked on numerous contracts with the construction arm of Carillion over the years, so we know them very well, and it goes without saying it has been incredibly sad and disheartening to see what has happened.

“But we’d like to reassure our staff and clients that we’ve been lucky enough not to have been adversely affected by it.”

A spokesperson for Durham Police said: “This was a sophisticated, high-value theft and we are carrying out enquiries to identify the suspects.”

Anyone with information is urged to call police on 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Newton Aycliffe steel firm Finley Structures is helping to regenerate an important area in another major North-East city.

After completing steelwork on the Riverwalk regeneration development in Durham city, the family-run business has fabricated and erected 550 tonnes of steel on the former Vaux site in Sunderland, for main contractor Carillion.

The £20m, state-of-the-art development should be completed by June 2018 and kick-start what is being lined up as a 20-year project.

The five-storey building, the first of many planned for the city centre site, will be a 60,000 sq ft office block which could also house a bar, cafe and restaurant on the ground floor.

The regeneration work is being delivered by Siglion, a joint venture set up between Carillion and Sunderland City Council.

Carillion awarded the steel element of the project to Finley Structures, which earlier this year completed an 1,100-tonne project at the £30m Riverwalk development in Durham.

As well as fabricating and erecting 550 tonnes of steel at the former Vaux site, Finley also installed six floors of PC concrete floor planks, three PC stairs and a PC lift-shaft, and completed their scope of works in the summer.

The firm’s operations manager Jim Graham said: “This was a particularly pleasing project for us, not least because of the economic importance of the project to Sunderland as a city, but also because of the many added-value items within it that we completed for Carillion, including off-site intumescent painting.

“It has supported local jobs in its construction from within our own company, while we’ve also used local labour to erect the steel, and it was delivered on an extremely tight programme, so all-in-all it’s been a win-win project.”

The former brewery site in Sunderland closed down in 1999 and has stood derelict ever since.

Tesco bought the land in 2001, two years after it became available, but failed to build a supermarket there, and the site was then bought by Sunderland City Council in 2011.

Newton Aycliffe construction company Finley Structures will fabricate and erect 1,000 tonnes of steel after sealing a double deal.

The family-run firm, based on Aycliffe Business Park, is working for the first time with Leeds-based main contractor GMI Construction on a new distribution centre in Lancashire, involving 465 tonnes of steel.

Finley Structures has also won another contract in the education sector as it works on a 640-tonne project for BAM Construction at Doncaster Sixth Form College.

Road haulage giant Fagan and Whalley (F&W) is expanding with a multi-million pound development on Burnley Bridge Business Park – a development which is creating at least 25 new jobs.

The transport firm won planning permission to build a 92,000 square foot distribution hub on a 10-acre site at the complex near the M65’s junction nine.

Finley Structures won the contract from GMI Construction to design and build its steel frame on a site which lies next to power lines.

And the complex nature of the project is proving no obstacle for Finley Structures.

The firm’s commercial director Diane Ruston said: “We’ve had to erect the steel in close proximity to major power lines, and as the building is taller than the lines this is particularly challenging.

“But through the design process, we developed effective solutions to enable the project to be delivered safely and successfully.

“Furthermore, this is the first time we’ve worked with GMI and it’s great to foster another new relationship with a major contractor.”

F&W’s new hub will provide parking for up to 80 trailers, with 10 loading bays and 25,000 pallet locations.

The development will complement the family-run firm’s existing headquarters at Shuttleworth Mead Business Park and satellite centre in Coventry which together employ 300 staff.

Burnley Bridge Business Park is a £50m development near Burnley, providing modern industrial and warehousing accommodation creating 1,400 jobs.

Meanwhile, Finley Structures has strengthened its ongoing relationship with major contractor BAM Construction after successfully securing a contract at Doncaster Sixth Form College.

BAM is constructing the £11.1m building and awarded Finley’s a 640-tonne project to fabricate and erect steel as part of the overall scheme, while also installing approximately 9,000 sqm of pre-cast concrete floor units along with pre-cast concrete lift shafts, pre-cast concrete ground beams and pre-cast concrete stairs.

The sixth form project follows several recent contracts in the education sector for Finley Structures, after working on a 260-tonne contract at Roundhay School in Leeds for Interserve and a 560-tonne project at Ryde Academy on the Isle of Wight for Sir Robert McAlpine.

Finley Structures are also working on a 224-tonne project George Mitchell School in London for Bowmer and Kirkland, SEMH School in Seacroft, East Leeds, for Interserve, as well as Krishna Avanti School, which is Britain’s first state-funded Hindu school, in Edgware, London – a 337-tonne contract, also for Bowmer and Kirkland.

“The education sector has been crucial to us over the last couple of years and continues to do so,” added Finley Structures managing director Julie Raistrick.

“We enjoyed a really busy finish to 2016, with an equally busy start to 2017, which is very encouraging.”

With Finley Structures joint managing director Julie Raistrick…

Brexit certainly seems to be making an impact on the construction industry.

As the politicians quarrel relentlessly in the media about our exit from the European Union, the ongoing uncertainty about the terms of Britain’s divorce from Europe tends to affect our industry more than others.

Luckily, we enjoyed a very strong end to 2016 and enjoyed a raft of new orders at the beginning of 2017, which has put us in good stead for the new financial year.

Our 2016-17 turnover figure, to the end of March, is on course to exceed £16m, although we’re awaiting confirmation of our final accounts.

And since the start of the year, work at a number of sites has now commenced and the factory is running at full capacity.

We’re already well into an 1,100-tonne project at the new Riverwalk development in Durham city and we’re also on site at Hull Venue, a new state-of-the-art entertainment facility which is being built as part of Hull’s City of Culture.

Other notable contract wins include a 283-tonne project to build a new Hilton Hotel in Lincoln for main contractor Manorcrest, a 300-tonne warehouse in Leicester for A&H Construction and a 614-tonne project for Carillion Construction in Sunderland.

We’ve also won a third contract with Interserve for another school, this time the SEMH School in South Leeds, which is already on site, as well as the DPD Beckton Gateway for A&H Construction.

There are also many other irons in the fire. Andrew Workman and Chris Hodgson in our estimating team continue to work hard on pricing up new projects, and we’re very hopeful to win some of these for later in the year.

Julie Raistrick
Joint Managing Director

Finley Structures has won a 1,100-tonne project which will help to rejuvenate Durham city.

The family-run business was awarded a contract from Sir Robert McAlpine to work on a retail and entertainment complex as part of the multi-million pound Durham Gates redevelopment.

And the contract win has come as a personal victory for Finley’s Managing Director John Finley, as it’s the first project he has won in his home city after nearly 40 years in the construction industry.

Finley, who’s originally from Esh Winning, just outside Durham city, says he’s personally delighted to have won it.

He said: “Even going back to my original steel erecting days in the late 1970s I’d never worked on a project in the city.

“And since starting out in business in 1981 that pattern has continued, despite many student accommodation projects being carried out around the city in recent years.

“So to have finally won a contract in Durham city is very much a personal victory for me and the company and we’re naturally delighted.”

Finley Structures started on-site at Durham earlier this year and expect to be finished this summer. Their part of the project is to fabricate and erect 1,100 tonnes of steel on top of an existing concrete structure.

The steel project is supporting at least 30 local jobs, including a local drawing office and labourers,

John added: “It’s a transfer structure, with a new steel frame that sits on top of that, so it’s quite a challenge.

“Building up into fresh air is straight forward, but fixing down into existing concrete structures is always much more complex.

“But it’s a good local project we’re all excited to be involved with, and we’re working with main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine, with whom we have a long-standing partnership.”

With a 445-bed student accommodation unit, a six-screen Odeon cinema and half a dozen bars and restaurants, the riverside area will be transformed by 2018.

It’s part of three major contracts across the city which represent a total £195m of investment.

The developments will bring a huge range of choice for County Durham foodies, with restaurants including Marco Pierre White Steakhouse Bar and Grill, Handmade Burger Co and Caribbean restaurant Turtle Bay all set to open there eventually.

The two-storey glass fronted building will take in views across the river wear of the castle and the Cathedral.

Riverwalk is set to open in two stages in 2018 and be completed by that summer.

Finley Structures has recruited a new contracts manager from a major national firm.

Fred Searle has joined the Finley management team after 29 years with Thirsk-based Severfield.

Fred, from Harrogate, says the move was made easy because of his longstanding association with a number of key staff already at Finley Structures.

He knows the firm’s Managing Director and founder, John Finley, from his days as a Severfield director.

He also worked with Finley’s current Operations Manager Jim Graham and Commercial Director Diane Ruston during their time with the North Yorkshire-headquartered company.

Fred joined Finley from Severfield in October 2013 and Ruston followed him North in May 2014.

“There’s a 25-year history between me and some of the key personnel here at Finley Structures,” said Fred.

“What attracted me to join Finley’s was the working environment and the family-run ethos it has at the heart of the company.

“I’ve also been impressed by the work ethic of the people here. It’s a very forward-thinking business and I’m looking forward to the new challenge.”

Jim added: “Fred and I go way back and we’re delighted to have him on board as part of the management team.

“He’ll be an extremely useful addition to the workforce as we continue to grow.”

Finley Structures has been awarded a prestigious contract to help build a new £36m entertainment venue in Hull.

Finley has been handed a 960-tonne project to fabricate and erect the steel frame for Hull Venue, on behalf of main contractor Bam Construction.

Hull Venue is a state-of-the-art, music and events complex with up to 3,500 seats that will enable the city to attract large corporate conferences, exhibitions and trade tours as well as major touring concerts, stand-up comedy, family shows and sporting events.

As well as fabricating and erecting the steel for the multi-use complex, Finley Structures is also installing pre-cast concrete stairs, lift shafts and terrace units as part of the project.

The Aycliffe firm is already on site in Hull, while working on another redevelopment project closer to home in Durham city, on the multi-million pound Riverwalk development.

“This is another phoenix from the flames type of project,” said Finley Structures Operations Manager Jim Graham.

“There’s a lot of redevelopment going on in Hull at the moment, as part of its 2017 City of Culture programme, and it’s another good example of how we’re helping to transform an old site into a state-of-the-art venue.”

The 1,100 tonne Durham Gates and Hull Venue contracts are two of several major projects won by Finley Structures in the first part of 2017.

They also include a 283-tonne project to build a new Hilton Hotel in Lincoln for main contractor Manorcrest, a 300-tonne warehouse in Leicester for A&H Construction and a 614-tonne project for Carillion Construction in Sunderland.

The education sector has also been a significant area of growth for Finley Structures in the last 12 months.

Recent projects have included Roundhay School in Leeds for Interserve Construction, Ryde Academy on the Isle of Wight for Sir Robert McAlpine, Doncaster Sixth Form College for BAM Construction, George Mitchell School in London for Bowmer and Kirkland, and SEMH School in Seacroft, East Leeds, also for Interserve.

Finley Structures has also completed a 337-tonne project for Bowmer and Kirkland, to fabricate and erect Avanti School in Stanmore, London, and has also won a third contract with Interserve for another school, this time the SEMH School in South Leeds, which is already on site.

Jim added: “It has already been a hugely positive start to 2017 for Finley Structures which also gives us a strong start to the new financial year from April.

“We’re hoping to secure a lot more work in the coming months to further boost our order book for the year ahead.”

Finley Structures has strengthened its ongoing relationship with major contractor BAM Construction after successfully securing a contract at Doncaster Sixth Form College.

BAM is constructing the £11.1m building and awarded a 640-tonne project to fabricate and erect steel as part of the overall scheme, while also installing approximately 9,000 sqm of pre-cast concrete floor units along with pre-cast concrete lift shafts, pre-cast concrete ground beams and pre-cast concrete stairs.

The sixth form project follows several recent contracts in the education sector for Finley Structures, after working on a 260-tonne contract at Roundhay School in Leeds for Interserve and a 560-tonne project at Ryde Academy on the Isle of Wight for Sir Robert McAlpine (read more about that on page 5).

Finley Structures are also working on a 224-tonne project George Mitchell School in London for Bowmer and Kirkland, SEMH School in Seacroft, East Leeds, for Interserve, as well as Krishna Avanti School, which is Britain’s first state-funded Hindu school, in Edgware, London – a 337-tonne contract, also for Bowmer and Kirkland.