Aycliffe Today Business Aycliffe Today Business Issue 39 | Page 16

16 | Aycliffe Today Business
Finley Structures production controller
Philip Metcalfe with the firm’s new
Voortman cutting machine.
£500k
investment
in new drill and
cutting machine
Steel firm Finley Structures has invested
more than £500,000 in a new state-
of-the-art cutting machine to increase
capacity and improve efficiencies.
By Martin Walker
T
he family-run business, which has been
buoyed with a string of major contract
wins recently, has invested £250,000
to create a new 7,500 sq ft. manufacturing
space to accommodate the state-of-the-art
machine, which is in addition to the firm’s
existing 88,000 sq ft facility on Aycliffe
Business Park.
And within months of being installed,
the Voortman tool has already recorded
efficiencies of more than 10%, which
is anticipated to increase to 15%, to
accommodate a strong order book.
Finley’s production controller Philip
Metcalfe said: “Our fittings department
previously was four men using four machines
producing 17.5 tonnes per week – now it’s
two men using two machines producing 20
tonnes per week.
“The extra labour created will be used in
other areas of the factory, meaning we’ve
increased overall output, and we can also
potentially provide fittings to other local
fabricators.”
Finley Structures has been working on
a 640-tonne project for main contractor
Galliford Try at Durham University’s Maiden
Castle sports facility.
It was the second major project to be
awarded from Galliford Try, with Finley
Structures also working on a 930-tonne
contract at the CTAR Building in Leeds.
Finley was also boosted with a triple
contract win from major national firm BAM
Construction towards the back end of 2018.
The firm has fabricated and erected 380
tonnes for the Advanced Wellbeing and
Research Centre (AWRC) for Sheffield Hallam
University.
Also at Sheffield Hallam, Finley Structures
constructed 130 tonnes of steel for the
National Centre of Excellence for Food
Engineering (NCEFE) which is already at the
centre of an expanding network of business,
industry groups, academics and engineers
working to solve specific business challenges
within the food and drink sector.
And the Aycliffe construction specialists is
also in the process of fabricating 820 tonnes
of steel for a new five-storey building for
BAM Construction at New College Bradford,
which is due to be fully completed by
September 2019.
Finley Structures was formed by John
Finley in 2000 and has since worked for
nearly all of the UK’s main contractors in the
construction business, including Sir Robert
McAlpine, BAM, Tolent, Interserve, Bowmer
& Kirkland and Galliford Try.
The firm has worked on projects the length
and breadth of Britain, while also helping
to construct some of the most high-profile
buildings in the North-East, including Hitachi
Rail Europe’s train assembling factory
in Newton Aycliffe, Nissan’s car plant in
Washington, Nifco’s state-of-the-art factory in
Eaglescliffe and Teesside University’s award-
winning Curve building in Middlesbrough.