A Tyneside brickwork firm has built up contracts worth more than £10m in the last six weeks as work within the housing sector ramps up across the North East.
South Shields-based Brickwork Direct Ltd specialises in housing and commercial brickwork and counts housebuilders in the private and social housing sectors as clients, including Gentoo, Keepmoat, Esh, Story Homes, Avant Homes and Partner Construction. The firm supplies bricklayers mostly to the residential development sector with a team of almost 200 tradesmen on its books, and managing director Ken Collins says the firm is currently dealing with contracts over the last six weeks with a labour value of more than £10m.
The company was established in 2003 and employs 25 staff at its headquarters in South Shields. Recent wins mean it is forecasting turnover of over £10m this financial year, up £2.5m over last year. The firm, which operates solely in the North East region from Alnwick to Teesside, has picked up five sites for Miller Homes with a labour value of over £4.2m, four sites for Story Homes at Dunston, Alnwick, Darlington and Stockton and with others in the pipeline for Gentoo in Whitburn and Sunderland.
Read more: Craft beer company BrewDog set to open riverside County Durham bar
Mr Collins, a time-served bricklayer with over 40 years of experience also owns a garden centre, a nursery and businesses in landscaping, scaffolding and maintenance, which all supply sub-contracted services to the main Brickwork Direct business.
He said: “We have a solid reputation with our clients. We only employ time-served, highly skilled bricklayers who take considerable pride in the job. Additionally, and importantly, we pledge to deliver on time, to budget and with zero defects.
“By mid-September we will have fifty squads of three staff – a labourer and two bricklayers – out on site on numerous projects across the region and we have another 12 projects, mainly with housebuilders, ready to negotiate. I believe that if we can help our clients to succeed, we will succeed too.”
He said that despite the recent influx of work, the market continues to be challenging and was sluggish at the start of the year with the estimating team tendering for every project that came their way. The company’s efforts are only now starting to bear fruit but Mr Collins said many challenges remain.
He said: “There is a huge shortage of kiln-fired bricks, which are the best you can buy. You’re talking £700 per thousand compared to £400 per thousand for cold-cast concrete bricks. Then there is the time it takes to get deliveries – you can get a cold-cast brick to site in 10 days, but it takes four weeks to get a kiln-fired supply. So even though they are of an inferior quality, and more difficult to lay because they have a narrower edge, unfortunately they are becoming the norm.
“I also think we are looking at a downturn in the not-too-distant future, so I am delighted with these recent wins although we are still out there pushing for the next contract so that I can keep as many of our bricklayers employed as possible with the work we have already had confirmed.”
- Second bid for levelling up cash to support Tyne offshore and subsea sectors
- Conveyancing hold-ups hold back profits at estate agency group LSL Property Services
- Caravan maker Erwin Hymer invests for future as staycations trigger strong demand
- New drinks range promises health benefits for women
- North East deals of the week - Key acquisitions, contracts and investments
