A FIRM of building surveyors has completed its third profitable year of trading thanks to ongoing growth in the region’s automotive and offshore sectors.
Newcastle-based Silverstone Building Consultancy has also moved into a newly-refurbished four-storey office building on Grey Street, where they now employ five full-time members of staff.
The firm was set up three years ago by founding directors Ben Hunter and Richard Farrey, who say the company’s secret to success is helped largely by the personal service it can offer as an independent firm.
Hunter said: “Over the past three years, the business has benefited from ongoing demand for our core services and repeat business in areas such as building surveys, dilapidations consultancy, expert witness and due diligence services.
“However, the key catalyst for growth has been some major instructions from both the automotive and offshore sectors, where we have worked for clients including Nifco, Tallent Automotive and Global Marine Systems.”
It is widely acknowledged that the automotive supply chain has had a significant and positive impact on the North East commercial property market, despite the economic downturn. The region is also a key service provider to the offshore sector, which is undergoing significant growth and, as a result, is having positive repercussions on property take-up in and around the North East’s commercial ports.
Silverstone are one of many local businesses to benefit from the ongoing positive effect these two growing industries are having on the region.
Farrey added: “We have seen an increase in demand for businesses extending and improving their existing industrial facilities in order to accommodate increased workloads, as well as a number of firms building new, bespoke state-of-the-art factories to meet their growing businesses needs.
“This has in turn resulted in some valuable project management work for our firm, proving key to our success over the last few years.”
Silverstone have further reason to celebrate as they are set to start their fourth year in a strong position, having already managed to secure 60% of their projected income at the start of 2013 thanks to a growth in profits.
“We are delighted to have already secured a significant portion of our projected income for next year,” said Hunter.
“This provides us with confidence that we are working towards yet another successful year where we hope to continue to expand.
“We have recently signed a 10-year lease on our new office building, which demonstrates our ongoing commitment to our staff, clients and the region.”
