South Shields brick company experiences record-breaking year

Despite a slow start to 2022, Brickworks Direct, which specialises in housing and commercial brickwork, is experiencing a record-breaking year.

The company mainly supplies bricklayers to the residential development sector to a range of well-known housebuilders in both the private and social housing sectors as clients, including Gentoo, Keepmoat, Esh, Story Homes, Avant Homes and Partner Construction as well as being a preferred contractor for Darlington Borough Council.

Over the last six weeks, the firm has picked up five sites for Miller Homes with a labour value of over £4.2million, four sites for Story Homes at Dunston, Alnwick, Darlington and Stockton and with others in the pipeline for Gentoo in Whitburn and Sunderland, has secured projects with a total labour value in excess of £10million.

Managing director, Ken Collins, who has over 40 years of experience in the trade, 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 twelve projects, mainly with housebuilders, ready to negotiate.

“I believe that if we can help our clients to succeed, we will succeed too.”

Despite the recent influx of work, the market continues to be challenging and was quite sluggish at the start of the year with the estimating team, led by quantity surveyor, Nick Wilson, tendering for every project that came their way.

Ken who has a garden centre, a nursery, and businesses in landscaping, scaffolding and maintenance, is delighted with the recent wins and he an the team are still out there pushing for the next contract

Brickwork Direct employs twenty-five staff at its headquarters in South Shields and is forecasting a turnover of over £10million this year - an increase of £2.5million over last year.