Rasharkin-based Clarke Contracts was selected by O’Hare & McGovern
(OHMG) to supply and install renders and screed for the Lisburn Primary and Community Care Centre on the Lagan Valley Hospital site.

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NI Water has announced that it is leading the way with another major sustainable solution to wastewater treatment, which maximises the use of renewables as part of an integrated solution. This £5million investment to upgrade Ballykelly Wastewater Treatment Works will provide a new sustainable wastewater treatment approach, utilising reed beds as part of the treatment process, providing a natural, long-term sustainable and resilient solution. This major investment also includes a 100kW solar energy system to help power the new works with solar energy.  

Sara Venning, CEO NI Water said: “As the largest user of electricity in Northern Ireland, we are committed to finding innovative sustainable solutions to water and wastewater treatment that also harness renewable energy to reduce our expenditure on power.

“Ballykelly is one of many sites across the province where we are thinking outside the box, using a natural solution to wastewater treatment, combined with using a solar energy system to help reduce our energy use and carbon footprint.

“As the second largest landowner in Northern Ireland, our assets have the potential to be a catalyst for change across Northern Ireland’s energy and transport networks as a whole.”  

The contractor for this major investment is Maghera-based BSG Civil Engineering in partnership with Belfast-based RPS.

Heron Bros Group has announced an investment of over £6.5 million in two of their subsidiary manufacturing businesses based in Cookstown, designed to meet growing market opportunities in the construction, refurbishment and fit out industries. This investment in new factory facilities and machinery across Heron Fit Out and Northern Mouldings Ltd, trading as Promould is expected to result in the creation of at least 30 new roles within the next 1-2 years. These roles will include a mix of manufacturing as well as sales and administrative positions across both neighbouring businesses which are based on the Drum Road in Cookstown.

Promould, which has been in business for more than 20 years, is a specialist manufacturer of MDF wrapped profiles for a wide range of applications including skirting, architrave, kitchen components. and door frames. Recognised as a market leader in this sector, they offer a wide product range with real wood veneer, specialised paper, PVC and painted profile finishes. Heron Fit Out meanwhile was established in 2017 and specialises in timber fire door manufacturing to the highest safety standards and primarily services UK and Ireland markets. Both businesses are increasingly complementing each other and benefit from the parentage of the wider Heron Bros Group in terms of market access, buying power and reputation.

Speaking about the latest investment Martin Blaney, Manufacturing Director, Heron Bros said; “This latest investment in our two manufacturing businesses in Cookstown represents a significant vote of confidence in the teams and the products they are delivering to meet changing market demands and new opportunities. We have experienced significant growth across both businesses in the last couple of years and believe that by delivering important synergies through this investment we will make both businesses even more innovative and competitive. This will now allow us to grow the team and our expertise to help deliver our ambitious growth plans for the manufacturing and supply side of the Heron Bros Group.”

PHOTO CAPTION

Pictured at the new factory premises in Cookstown are (l-r):  Julian Knipe, Commercial Manager, Heron Fit Out; Chris McCreanor, General Manager, Northern Mouldings Ltd (Promould) and Martin Blaney, Manufacturing Director, Heron Bros.

Business leaders representing Northern Ireland’s construction sector have had their outstanding contributions recognised at the 2021 Institute of Directors Northern Ireland (IoD NI) Director of the Year Awards, sponsored by AIB.

David Henderson of Tobermore received the award for Innovation, while Louise Skeath of SDG Construction Technology was presented with the Director of the Year Award for Small to Medium Business.

Winners of the prestigious awards were announced during a ceremony at The Merchant Hotel, Belfast.

This year’s  winners included:

Director of the Year – Innovation, sponsored by KPMG – David Henderson, Tobermore

Director of the Year – Public Sector, sponsored by Capita Technology Solutions – Roger Wilson, Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council

Director of the Year – Small to Medium Business, sponsored by Ulster University Business School – Louise Skeath, SDG

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Gordon Milligan, IoD NI Chairman, said:

“I would like to wholeheartedly congratulate all of our 2021 winners, who have yet again demonstrated the resilience and strength of Northern Ireland’s business community across a breadth of industries and sectors, despite what has been a most challenging time for business.”

Construction and civil engineering specialist, Graham, has been recognised by leading international experts and peers for the second time in four years for its consistent, innovative, and ground-breaking approach to employee health and wellbeing.

The prestigious award, which is an international award across all industries, was in recognition of Graham’s pioneering employee health and wellbeing initiatives during the Covid pandemic.

Initiatives introduced by the privately-owned construction company, saw tangible results including an employee turnover reduction of 50%, a 25% reduction in the average duration of employee absence due to mental ill-health, engagement rates soaring to 85% positivity, and 87% of staff rating ‘excellent’ for manager support and communication.

Investors in People is the international standard for people management and enables organisations to benchmark against the best in the business on an international scale. Last year, Graham was reaccredited with the IIP Platinum standard, the highest accolade that can be achieved against the Investors in People Standard and is currently held by only 3% of IIP accredited organisations.

Michael Smyth, HR Director, Graham said: “Over the past year, humanity has faced unprecedented challenges, particularly in relation to the pandemic. We knew that to make a meaningful difference, we needed to fully understand the challenges our employees and their families were experiencing and concentrate on a three-pronged approach: physical, mental and social wellbeing.

“We made a concerted effort to listen and involve employees in the design and implementation of our award-winning initiatives, as well as employing professional health and wellbeing experts, all to ensure we provided valuable support.

Graham have invested in the recruitment of a full-time Wellbeing Manager to embed health and wellbeing into the daily operation of the business and focus on tackling poor mental wellbeing which is prevalent in society and the construction industry in-particular.

Local Office Fitout Specialists – Calibro Workspace, have been awarded a significant re-development project for an existing client in Limerick.

Building on their long-term trusted relationship with Matt Staunton, General Secretary at Forsa, this project entails the refurbishment of a derelict warehouse into a new, modern office block.

Calibro were first approached back in 2016 by the landlord of the building to carry out a series of roof repairs. However, having the seen the building, Neil Cooper, Senior Director at Calibro, immediately had a vision of how the building could be transformed into a usable office space.

“Following the initial site visit, we came up with a concept design of how we could convert the derelict site into a usable office space and my client absolutely loved it” said Neil Cooper.

The existing derelict building in Limerick

The concept design was put before the Limerick County Council and planning authorities and planning permission was secured to transform the site.

Over the last 12 months, Calibro has been working on behalf of their client to engage a full design team to produce final detailed designs and specification to complete the construction and fitout project.

Ronnie Crawford, Client Relations Director, commented: “The last year has been an exciting part of the project, seeing original concepts turn into final design and specification. To see an unusable building convert into 9,300 sq.ft of modern re-usable office space has been incredibly enthusing and rewarding. It is definitely one of our most significant projects heading into 2022.”

The building will retain some unique features of the building’s history and incorporate modern design elements such as exposed ceilings, high-tech conference facilities and a town-hall area. Calibro’s focus on staff wellbeing has been shown out in the conversion of each end of the building from solid walls to glass facade to get as much exposure to natural light throughout the building.

The works have begun on-site as of 4^th October and are scheduled to continue until Q3 of 2022.

Commenting on the contract delivery, Ewen Cooper, Contracts Director at Calibro Workspace, said: “The project scope certainly makes it an exciting project to manage and we look forward to delivering the project with the same high level of quality as all of our projects, on time and within budget.”

The team at Calibro are also extremely optimistic about the future and are forecasting a record year for 2022 to kick-start their ambitious growth plans.

An updated market report by the UK’s independent waste and bioenergy sector advisors, Tolvik Consulting has confirmed that Northern Ireland needs the proposed arc21 residual waste treatment facility if it is to deliver the waste management strategy and meet Circular Economy targets which have recently been adopted into Northern Ireland law.

Details of the report were shared recently by Indaver, the lead company behind the £240m Becon project who also emphasised the pressing need for a fully integrated waste management system to cope with Northern Ireland’s growing waste and to avoid a future crisis in waste management. 

Tolvik’s detailed analysis, using the latest local authority data for 2020 and which covers the lockdown period has categorically concluded that even if the arc21 project is delivered as planned there will still be a residual waste treatment capacity ‘gap’ in Northern Ireland of 124,000 tonnes in 2035.  The projections of waste arisings consider projected household changes, anticipated recycling increases and both Brexit and covid implications. Importantly, they also considered the current capacity of all existing Energy from Waste (EfW) facilities including the Full Circle Generation plant in Belfast.

 The report projects that by 2035 when Northern Ireland must achieve the ambitious Circular Economy Municipal Waste recycling target of 65% we will still produce over 500,000 tonnes of residual waste annually that cannot be recycled and will therefore require alternative treatment.

The issue has arisen because, while an undersupply of Level-3 qualified plumbers is anticipated in Northern Ireland, the DfE argues that the shortfall must be balanced against the need for pathways for “those who have not reached their potential” in school.

The professional body for the plumbing and heating sector in Northern Ireland has hit out at proposals for traineeships as a route to entry to the sector, saying they are likely to create first- and second-class qualifications which will be detrimental to skills and quality.

The Scotland and Northern Ireland Plumbing Employers’ Federation (SNIPEF) has made its concerns clear in meetings with the Department for the Economy (DfE) in Northern Ireland but, despite this, the Traineeships are to go ahead this Autumn.

It is now urging its members to contact their Member for the Legislative Assembly to reiterate industry concerns about dilution of skill sets and the potential for confusion about who holds the relevant qualifications in an age when plumbing and heating is becoming increasingly complex.

The industry-recognised route into plumbing and heating is a four-year apprenticeship in full-time employment leading to Level-3. In contrast, the proposed Traineeships comprise two years at college with one day a week of work experience, leading to a Level-2 Certificate – which is different to the Apprenticeship Level-2.

Fiona Hodgson, Chief Executive of SNIPEF, said: “SNIPEF is very supportive of encouraging young people into the industry, but it believes this proposal is misguided and that the Traineeship as it stands is not the way forward.

“With the Building Services Engineering sector, we have made alternative proposals which would provide a broader traineeship as a taster of the different trades and professions, but this argument has not, at this stage, been accepted.

“There will effectively be two categories of apprenticeships, and the danger is that one set will have served four years in employment with a plumbing company and will be recognised by industry while the other, having served only two years predominantly at college only, may not.”

Tyrone-based hire firm KDM Hire Ltd continues to expand their offering with the opening of a new depot in Castlereagh, Belfast. Located on Alexander Road close to the outer ring, the depot is ideally located to serve greater Belfast, Lisburn and County Down.

This Tool and Equipment hire depot adds to their existing four depots in Mallusk and Dublin alongside a Cabin Hire Yard and headquarters, both based in Cookstown.

The new depot has been designed to cater to both trade and domestic customers with a large range of modern equipment available for the construction, industrial and DIY sectors.

The £1.3 million invested in the new facility is part of an ongoing strategy to grow the company’s place as one of the country’s leading hire companies. Exciting new product offerings are also in the pipeline with some due to be launched in the coming weeks. The company has also recently acquired a 3-acre green field site in Ballycoolin industrial Estate, Blanchardstown, Dublin which they hope to have operational later this year. These expansion plans are anticipated to increase staff numbers to over 180 in the coming year from the 155 currently employed