Finley Structures has won praise from a main contractor as it continues to work on a high-profile North-East sports development.

Construction firm Galliford Try awarded family-run Finley Structures a contract to fabricate and erect 640 tonnes of steel for Durham University’s expansion of its sports facilities.

Work started earlier this year on the £31m development at Maiden Castle, on the outskirts of Durham city.

The facility, once completed, will include an indoor cricket hall, a 12 court multi-use sports hall, suitable for international and national competitions, a martial arts dojo, fitness suite, purpose-built recovery facilities and high-performance weights rooms.

Once the new facility is ready in August 2019, the existing centre will be refurbished, increasing the facilities for fitness classes and building a specialist sports laboratory.

A ground-breaking ceremony was held in August as Finley Structures started work on fabricating the steel, which has now been erected on site.

Galliford Try senior projects manager Paul Mares said: “Finley Structures have been involved with the Maiden Castle project from our initial bid, assisting the erection sequence and value engineering, ensuring both Galliford Try and our client have a robust price and programme.

“Throughout the design stage both Finley Structures and their design team have been proactive in managing the process to ensure they arrived on site as planned.

“Once on site the team have been a pleasure to work with, the frame and metal decking packages have been erected safely, to programme by a team who have identified any potential issues in advance and worked with the wider team to resolve ensuring no delays have been incurred.

“This has not only been noticed by Galliford Try, but also our client who has commented on the speed of erection. I look forward to working with the team again.”

The Maiden Castle development is the second major project to be awarded from Galliford Try this year, with Finley Structures also currently working on a 930-tonne contract at the CTAR Building in Leeds.

Finley Structures estimating manager Andrew Workman said: “We’ve been working closely with Galliford Try for some time now and have struck up an excellent understanding.

“We’ve worked with them on several projects and we’re delighted to hear they’re happy with the job we’re doing.”

Finley Structures, formed by John Finley in 2000, was buoyed with a triple contract boost from major national firm BAM Construction towards the back end of the year.

Finley Structures will fabricate and erect 380 tonnes for the Advanced Wellbeing and Research Centre (AWRC) for Sheffield Hallam University.

Also at Sheffield Hallam, Finley Structures will construct 130 tonnes of steel for the National Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering (NCEFE) which is already at the centre of an expanding network of business, industry groups, academics and engineers working to solve specific business challenges within the food and drink sector.

And the Aycliffe construction specialists will fabricate and erect 820 tonnes of steel for a new five-storey building for BAM Construction at New College Bradford, which is due to start in December and be fully completed by September 2019.

Finley Structures has been buoyed with a triple contract boost from major national firm BAM Construction.

The family-run business, which became a category A supplier to BAM two years ago, has bagged a hat-trick of contracts totalling more than 1,300 tonnes of steel.

Finley Structures will fabricate and erect 380 tonnes for the Advanced Wellbeing and Research Centre (AWRC) for Sheffield Hallam University.

AWRC will act as the research hub for the National Centre for Sports and Exercise Medicine in Sheffield, a 2012 Olympic Legacy project which co-locates clinical services and physical activity facilities to help people with a medical need to exercise more easily.

Also at Sheffield Hallam, Finley Structures will construct 130 tonnes of steel for the National Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering (NCEFE) which is already at the centre of an expanding network of business, industry groups, academics and engineers working to solve specific business challenges within the food and drink sector.

And the Aycliffe construction specialists will fabricate and erect 820 tonnes of steel for a new five-storey building for BAM Construction at New College Bradford, which is due to start in December and be fully completed by September 2019.

Finley’s estimating manager Andrew Workman, who earlier this year said the company was hoping to tap into a “buoyant” education sector within the construction industry said: “The three contract wins really underpin our close working relationship with BAM Construction.

“We’ve worked on several projects with them in various areas of the country over the years and we’re delighted to be working with them again.

“We’ve also won a significant number of other contracts in recent months which has really bolstered our order book and puts us in great shape as we approach the winter months.”

Insert BAM quote here if possible…???

Finley Structures has previously worked on several contracts with BAM Construction, including projects at the University of Lincoln, Bannerdale School in Sheffield, Doncaster Sixth Form College and Hull Venue.

BAM Construction, which is based in Hertfordshire but has locations across the UK, is part of the Dutch-owned Royal BAM Group.

Finley Structures became one of only 300 category A suppliers from BAM’s 14,000-strong database of contractors two years ago.

Middlesbrough mayor Dave Budd signed his name into a landmark project which signifies the start of its steel production.

The town’s elected mayor visited Finley Structures in Newton Aycliffe after the family-run construction firm won a contract to fabricate and erect the steel for the new Centre Square development in Middlesbrough.

The 210,000 sq ft scheme, which is being delivered by Ashall Projects, will create a 21st century business destination in the heart of Middlesbrough with Grade A offices.

Preparatory works began on the site earlier this month and main contractor Bowmer and Kirkland awarded Finley Structures the steel contract.

The Aycliffe firm – which built the steel frame for Hitachi Rail Europe’s new facility in Aycliffe as well as factories for Nissan and Unipress in Washington and Nifco in Eaglescliffe – started fabricating 685 tonnes of steel this week, which will make up two structures (one 465 tonnes and the other 220 tonnes).

Finley Structures are expected to start erecting the steel from August 30 and are scheduled to finish in October – the whole Centre Square development is expected to take 14 months to complete.

Mayor Budd today signed and dated a large panel of its structure, which will be welded into the steel, and he said: “It’s not something I’ve done before!

“But it emphasises how important the new developments on Centre Square are, to Middlesbrough and the wider area, and it’s great having a local company do this as well.

“When I look outside my window every day I can see holes being dug in the ground, and very shortly the steel from here at Finley Structures will be going up, and at that point people will really start to think about what this will mean to the whole of Middlesbrough.

“It’s enormous because of the number of jobs it potentially brings with it, and that’s really what our Investment Prospectus is about.

“A lot of the projects are actually happening now and that tells a different sort of story, and maybe it raises ambitions that we can do these things.

“There’s a lot more optimism about and actual physical structures like this really emphasise that.”

Finley Structures, founded in 2000, is well-known for working on high-profile projects in the North-East – other notable projects have included Teesside University’s Curve building and Middlesbrough Council’s Sports Village – but the firm also works across the UK.

The company’s founder and managing director, John Finley, said: “It’s good to win local jobs, it keeps people employed and we use as many suppliers and contractors from around the North-East to work with us to build the contract.

“We’ve just completed the Gate development at Durham, we’ve won another contract with Unipress up at Washington and we have another couple of contracts coming up with Sir Robert McAlpine.

“So we’re very buoyant at the moment. We’re actually buying some new machinery and the contracts we have go well into January, so our order book is very strong.”

• Above: Middlesbrough mayor Dave Budd and Finley Structures managing director John Finley (right) with Finley estimating manager Andrew Workman and senior production controller Phil Metcalfe.

The boss of a major construction firm has moved to reassure staff and clients it has not been adversely affected by the collapse of Carillion.

Finley Structures has worked closely with the construction division of national contractor Carillion on a number of projects over the years.

The Newton Aycliffe family-run steel firm completed a 550-tonne structure at the former Vaux site in Sunderland for Carillion in September last year.

In a company newsletter, which is issued to employees as well as customers, Finley’s joint-managing director Julie Raistrick writes: “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.

“The predicament does, however, reiterate how difficult and competitive our industry is and how tight our margins are.

“Fortunately, we’ve had a lot of orders come through and we have a lot of work going into the New Year. We’re also winning work with a number of main contractors for the first time, including Marshalls and Henry Boot, which is really pleasing.”

Raistrick goes on to admit in the Finley newsletter that 2017-18 has been a challenging time.

“We’ve been buoyed by a lot of positive contract wins in recent months after what has been a tough year in the construction industry,” she says.

“Steel increases have been sporadic, which has been difficult to know how to forecast correctly and cost up projects, and we’ve had to reduce margins.

“As always, everyone is fighting for the same work, and we’ve had to be fiercely competitive.”

Finley Structures has recently been working on the Ongo Building in Scunthorpe for Britcon and an oil and gas facility for Pipeline Solutions in Cramlington for Bowmer & Kirkland.

And more recently the firm won a large contract from McLaughlin & Harvey to work on an 880-tonne project at GlaxoSmithKline in Barnard Castle.

Raistrick adds: “So despite 2017 being a testing year for all businesses in our sector, we remain extremely optimistic that it will be a strong year for us after weathering the mini storm.”

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