Pyeroy wins £7m bridges contract

Apr 16 2008 by Chris Knox, The Journal

A NORTH East painting and construction firm has won a contract to paint two of London’s landmark bridges as it sets its sights on achieving a £100m business.

Gateshead-based Pyeroy Group has secured a £7m contract from the City of London Corporation to blast off ageing paint work on both Tower Bridge and Southwark Bridge, which it will then paint over a four-year period.

The group, which also has a construction and environmental division, says it expects to grow its turnover from £58m to around £90m by 2012, and then 10% year on year after that.

It is also currently refurbishing a 40,000 metre section of the southern section of the Forth Rail Bridge in Scotland. The £5m plus contract will have taken the firm nine years to complete when the final coat is applied between 2011 and 2012, with the paint lasting 15 years before the firm has to do it all over again.

Brendan Fitzsimons, director of Pyeroy’s Industrial Division, said: “Working over water provides its own unique set of difficulties. However, the expertise and knowledge we are able to bring because of working on projects like the Forth Rail Bridge ensures that we really appreciate and understand what’s involved and can therefore design and deliver real added value solutions.”

The firm, which was set up in 1973 and also operates from sites in Fife, Belfast and the Wirral, also plans to expand its 900 staff by 50 year-on-year staff.

It also has smaller offices in Cork, Dublin, Glasgow and Liverpool.

The group also plans to increase its environmental activities, which include asbestos removal, fire protection and thermal and acoustic insulation. It is also active in the housebuilding market and is currently working with construction group Gladedale on a number of flats in Benton, Newcastle.

Hugh Pelham, managing director, said: “We have recently won a number of very prestigious contracts, which places us in a great position to tender for other London landmark refurbishment contacts that are likely to come along in the countdown to the start of the Olympics and beyond.”