Hebburn firm has almost doubled its turnover in a year

Castle Building Services, in Hebburn, says pre-planning and a forward-thinking ethos have both proved invaluable for the firm – one of the region’s largest independent mechanical and electrical building services design and installation companies.

A high level of repeat business, especially from main construction contractors, has been partly responsible for Castle reaching £38million.

A further indication that this growth will continue came with a decision by key commercial property client, UK Land Estates, to reinvest in speculative schemes.

Castle says its order book is in such rude health it has already secured more than 50% of its target for 2016, with some contracts running into 2017.

The leisure sector, particularly hotel developments, has been a growth area for the contractor and this looks set to continue as it has just been awarded a £4million contract for the development of a new hotel in Glasgow city centre.

Closer to home, during December, the contractor completed its role on the conversion of the old Co-op store in Newcastle, installing building services into what is now a 184-bed Premier Inn.

Currently many of Castle’s contracts are based on schemes north of the border, where it is working on projects in the education sector such as Caol Campus, in Fort William, and has now commenced the second phase of works constructing a new primary school.

Castle has also commenced working on Oriam, Scotland’s new national sports and performance facility at the Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh.

In the past 12 months, Castle has significantly increased staff numbers in both its North East and East Kilbride offices, with a high proportion of the recruitment occurring in Scotland.

The level of salaried staff has grown by 50% and the organisation also appointed four trainees.

Castle’s commercial director Allan Carr said: “This year has been another tremendous year for us and I would like to thank staff for their hard work and clients for their continued desire to work with us.

“Scotland continues to create a wealth of opportunities for us to work with both new and existing clients, and as we gain market share, I am confident that this will remain to be the case.

“We have also benefited from local government investment, winning projects on the back of Sunderland Council’s investment in developments such as the conversion of the TRW Valves plant in Washington for the production of automotive parts.“

Mr Carr added: “We have an incredibly talented and ambitious team of individuals and, like all successful businesses, we aim to nurture and mentor that talent by giving staff key roles and experiences to enhance their skills allowing us to advance our offering in readiness for further growth.”