FEATURE
New Division Is Fit For Purpose When Henry McLaughlin and William Harvey launched their small building company and yard, based at Belfast’s York Street in 1853, few would have envisaged the fledgling firm would grow to become one of the UK’s most successful construction and civil engineering brands.
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oday, McLaughlin & Harvey employs more than 800 people and has a group turnover in excess of £500m. The business has delivered signature projects the length and breadth of Britain and Ireland in the construction and civil engineering sectors. The privately owned business remains as ambitious and outward looking as ever – evidenced by the recent launch of a new fit-out led division that will be known as WorkSpace. This new division was created to provide a dedicated provision for projects outside the scope and scale of those traditionally associated with McLaughlin & Harvey. WorkSpace will offer clients a range of services spanning build, fit-out, facilities management, bespoke joinery, and commercial furniture under one composite brand. WorkSpace Director, Richard Cheevers, said: “For quite a few years our fit-out, FM, bespoke joinery and commercial furniture departments had been operating separately, when in fact very often those teams are working together on project delivery. So, it made sense for us to bring them under one umbrella and market them accordingly. “WorkSpace provides our clients with the focus and responsiveness of an experienced and agile team, with the reassurance that they’re working with one of the most trusted construction companies in the UK and Ireland. We are providing a specialist option for projects, with a market-leading fit-out capability at our core, but also encompassing build, bespoke joinery, commercial furniture
and hard facilities management services. We are delighted to have secured an order book of £12.7m across fit-out, build and facilities management which is a testament to the hard work of our team and the appetite for our offering. The feedback from the market has been exceptional since our launch in late May. “We believe WorkSpace can deliver a proposition that combines all of McLaughlin & Harvey’s traditional strengths with the freshness, energy and nimbleness of what effectively is a new enterprise, aimed at enabling the company to deliver a full range of projects of all sizes. “Whilst the focus of WorkSpace will be as a main contractor delivering build and fit-out projects, there is a lot of potential for us to provide integrated packages that also include specialist joinery, commercial furniture, and aftercare. Our team has extensive experience delivering projects for prestige brands such as M&S, ITV News, NatWest and Charles Hurst Aston Martin and Bentley. We plan to extend our reach further in other key areas such as commercial, hospitality, leisure, education, heritage, and visitor centres,” he continues. WorkSpace and McLaughlin & Harvey recently completed a major project at Jewish Care in Stanmore. A unique interior feature of the project was the bespoke wall and ceiling panelling, which was manufactured in-house. Each panel had a unique olive tree design which was CNC engraved and finished with a painted gold leaf. The division has also recently handed over the library interior fitout at the highly acclaimed Seamus Heaney HomePlace Visitor Centre in Bellaghy.
Richard Cheevers, Head of WorkSpace in the Seamus Heaney HomePlace.
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