The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 17
SCH Site Services managing director Gary Finley.
Numbers add up for steel firm after Tombola HQ contract win
Construction firm SCH Site Services has won a high-profile contract to help construct a new state-of-the-art head office for leading national bingo operator Tombola.
By Martin Walker
An artist’ s impression of Tombola’ s new HQ in Sunderland, which will be constructed by SCH Site Services.
Sunderland-based construction firm Brims is building a new £ 6m HQ in the city for Tombola, in a development which will create 80 new jobs.
Brims has awarded Newton Aycliffe-based SCH Site Services a contract to fabricate and erect a 210-tonne frame for the development, which is expected to be fully completed in early 2018.
The latest project for SCH comes just weeks after the firm announced a major recruitment drive following a number of contract wins.
In January, SCH has added four new office staff, three new site employees and also added three to its in-house fabrication team, boosting total employee numbers to 45.
Managing director Gary Finley said:“ We’ re delighted with this latest contract win which is a big, high-profile project for us.
“ We’ ve strengthened our management structure and employee numbers in recent months and this new project is the culmination of a lot of hard work by our staff behind the scenes.
“ We had a strong end to 2016 and we continue to enjoy a very encouraging start to 2017.”
Tombola’ s website is now the largest bingo site in the UK, and it also produces original bingo software and games, all created by inhouse developers.
The firm’ s futuristic HQ has been designed by Newcastle-based Ryder Architecture, with the intention of creating a riverside campus which blends both old and new buildings.
Once complete, the new complex – a contemporary twist on a bonded warehouse design – will enable Tombola to increase its workforce in Sunderland to almost 400 people.
Sunderland Central MP Julie Elliott recently visited the site prior to groundworks began, and she said:“ I am hugely impressed by the ambitions of Tombola, which is Europe’ s biggest online bingo company and could locate anywhere in Britain.
“ I am also delighted that a company of its size and reputation continues to be based in the city where they started.”
SCH, which expects to be on site in June once groundworks are completed, has also recently won a number of other major contracts.
The steel firm is working with Sir Robert McAlpine on enabling works at the Gates shopping centre in Durham city, involving concrete drilling and installing steelwork, while in a separate contract the firm is also working on behalf of sister company Finley Structures at the Gates, managing the site and steel erection.
SCH is also working on a project at City Electrical Factors in Meadowfield, Durham, involving 75 tonnes of secondary steelwork which has to be erected on to a pre-cast concrete structure, as well as a refurbishment project at Leeds University, involving various packages in and around the Student Union building.
Last year, SCH completed a 350-tonne project working on intu Metrocentre’ s new Qube II extension in Gateshead for main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine as well as another project for intu at Eldon Square in Newcastle.
For more details about SCH, go to www. schsiteservices. co. uk or call them on 01325 327149.