The chief executive of construction pioneer Merit has told how the firm is gearing up for growth after plans to extend its Northumberland base were approved.
The Cramlington business - a former North East Company of the Year - specialises in work on high-tech, complex structures for clients in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, energy, manufacturing, retail, commercial and nuclear sector.
The company has carved out a niche for itself in the construction sector with its PAM (pre-assembled modules) technique, which sees offsite 75% to 95% of products manufactured at its two Northumberland facilities, before being shipped to its final location for installation. The cost-effective system also reduces the length of projects considerably, bringing in rising numbers of contracts, especially in the biotech sector.
Read more: Britishvolt money 'hasn't gone anywhere' says Business Secretary Grant Shapps
Now, having doubled its workforce to more than 220 people in the last two years, Merit CEO Tony Wells says more jobs will be on the way after gaining approval for its bid to create a new high-bay extension at its base.
Mr Wells said the company is waiting for a grant application for funding, made to the North Tyneside Combined Authority, before pushing the button on the plans.
But once completed, the extension which will add an extra 40,000sqft, boosting its floor space to almost 160,000sqft. The planning application for the extension, which will take the current factory height of 6m to above 23m, highlighted how around 50 jobs could be created as a result of the development, while also increasing the efficiency and capacity of Merit’s capabilities, allowing for a higher supply of its modular, low carbon units.
Mr Wells said the business is on the verge of announcing new projects, to add to its largest projects to date - Piramal’s new Antibody Drug Conjugate manufacturing facility in Grangemouth and Autolus’ new £66m CAR-T Cell Therapy Manufacturing facility in Stevenage.
He said: “We anticipated the need for additional space when we went for our high-bay extension - and we’ve go planning approval for that - and assuming grant funding all goes well we’ll be pressing the button on that straight away.
“At the moment we’re trying to get more work, and being in biotech is a good place to be right now. The UK is a strong place to innovate in biotech and we’re in a good position to capitalise on that. Our way of executing buildings is very different and it's not as easy to break into the public sector, that’s more of a slow burn as a growth opportunity. But biotech is strong.
“We’re waiting on decisions into other high-tech stuff too. We’ve got our first CT, MRI fully-modular building going down into the Royal Berkshire Hospital. We’re waiting for final planning approval on that and we’ll hopefully start in the new year.
“Our whole ethos now is on productivity, we want aggressive productivity growth. Construction has seen declining productivity for years and there’s something fundamentally wrong with that so we’re trying to innovate our way out. The only way to get GDP growth and real wage rises is productivity.”
“I like to think we can make a breakthrough in terms of growth in 2023. We’ve got considerable space at the back of the factory too to expand further. It’s good fun at the moment.”
READ NEXT
