18 | Aycliffe Today Business
Gary Finley, managing director
of SCH Site Services
MAKING
MUSIC
GARY FINLEY is orchestrating an up-and-coming construction firm in the heart
of Aycliffe Business Park. He talks to MARTIN WALKER...
He dreamed of being a rock
star, but Gary Finley has
swapped his electric guitar
for the shop floor to build
up a vibrant firm which is
hitting the right notes in the
construction industry.
Gary was one of the driving forces behind
the scenes at Finley Structures as the
family firm built up a fine reputation while
increasing its turnover year-on-year.
Latterly he was production manager and then
operations director before his father, John
Finley, tasked him to head up sister company
SCH Site Services two-and-a-half years ago.
SCH works predominantly in the secondary
steelwork, steel erection and architectural
metalwork markets, as well as tapping into
other niche areas.
Turnover has doubled in the last two years
and staff are busy - it’s music to Gary’s ears.
But it’s not what the 34-year-old envisaged
when he left County Durham to pursue
his dreams of cracking the music business
nearly 15 years ago.
Gary left school, Tudhoe Grange
Comprehensive in Spennymoor, with a
few qualifications, then served his time
as a plater and welder with a Ferryhill firm
before heading off to Leeds to study music
technology.
Despite dad’s overtures into the world of
work, steel construction just wasn’t for him.
For now, at least.
Life is very different, but never dull. Family
gatherings often throw up plenty of workrelated banter. It’s unavoidable.
“Dad always said to me, ‘you need to go
out and earn money’. He’s always said that.
He tried to get me into a lot of things, and
I wasn’t interested in the slightest, reveals
”
Gary.
Parents John and Valerie and Gary’s sister,
Julie, run the main family business, Finley
Structures, while Julie’s husband, Gary
Raistrick, runs another very successful but
unconnected construction firm on Aycliffe
Business Park, Raisco.
“I was steel erecting for him during the
summer holidays, it was decent money for
a young lad, but I just didn’t see myself in
the structural steel game. I wanted to be in a
band recording music and playing live. I love
music. I play the guitar, drums, the bass and I
can read music.
“I didn’t do too well at school because I
wasn’t really that interested, I could do it, but
just had the wrong attitude, so I reluctantly
went to work for a fabrication company in
Ferryhill and served my time there in plating
and welding.
“I saw a DJ and music technology course
advertised at Leeds College of Music. I got
on the course and spent three years down
in Leeds enjoying myself, DJ-ing and putting
drum and bass nights on in pubs and clubs.
“Then our first child, Molly, was born and I
had to get a proper job. So I joined the family
company, originally on the shop floor, and
worked through from there.
”
Molly is now 14 and Gary has recently
married Molly’s mam. The couple have two
other children - Sonny, seven, and four-yearold Will.
“Work comes up all the time, admitted
”
Gary. “Gary is doing very well with Raisco,
he enjoys letting us know about that. But
fair play to him, he works hard and is very
ambitious.
“We have a lot of banter about what we’re
doing and how we’re going to get there.
“When I was younger I didn’t want to go into
the family business. I feel much differently
now. I’ve inherited John’s competitive nature
and I want to build the business and make it
a success.
”
SCH originally started out in 2006, operating
as a crane hire company with four mobile
cranes and four drivers working for local
companies, before exploring the secondary
steelwork market in 2011 and recording a
turnover of £325,000.
The firm moved into its own £500,000
premises, next door to Finley Structures,
and turnover gradually rose from £2.2m to
£3.43m in 2012-13 and with sales at £4.6m
last year, SCH is on target to at least equal
that this year.