18 | Aycliffe Today Business
Finley Structures joint
managing directors John
and Julie Finley
STEEL
DEAL
MARTIN WALKER focuses on one of Aycliffe Business Park’s biggest success stories, FINLEY STRUCTURES…
Finley Structures have more
than just weathered the storm
during a gloomy time for the
construction industry.
The family run firm, established by John
Finley in 2000, have seen a rise in turnover
in the last two years and an increase in
staff.
They’ve worked on showcase contracts up
and down the country, as well as multimillion-pound projects that are helping to
shape the North-East.
But if Finley Structures hadn’t already
established themselves as one of the
market-leaders in the steel industry, two
new contract wins have rubber-stamped it.
They’ve won the prestigious gig to
construct the steel frame for Hitachi Rail
Europe’s £82m train-building factory,
less than a mile away from their five-acre
site on Whinbank Road, and have also
been awarded a 1,500 tonne job to build
Nissan’s new factory which will build the
Japanese firm’s new Infiniti model.
The Hitachi contract was awarded to them
by main contractor Shepherd Construction.
It will involve approximately 2,000
tonnes of steel overall and represents an
“historic” deal for the company.
“It is another contract for us, but of course
it is a special one that will mean a lot
historically and makes me very proud to be
part of it, says John.
”
“We’ve worked on some big projects in
recent years and we have demonstrated
our ability to take on jobs of this
magnitude.
“But from an historic point of view it’s
huge. Train-building originated not too far
away from us at Shildon and in 30 to 50
years time we’ll be in the history books as
having played a major part in building the
factory that will bring train-building back
to County Durham, and Merchant Place
Developments, in particular, deserve huge
praise for achieving this.
”
John has previously credited his dedicated
workforce for the company’s roaring
success. Last year the firm reported an
actual turnover of £13.1m, up from £11m
the previous year, and by the end of March
this year they expect to achieve the same.
Key personnel have also been brought in
to assist with growth. Mark Stones joined
in April 2013 as SHEQ Manager and has
worked on the company getting their
ISO9001 and is now working on ISO14001
along with the CE Marking, which is an
industry standard.
Senior estimator Chris Hodgson, contracts
manager Ken Gray and quantity surveyor
Rob Duncan all joined the organisation
towards the end of the year.
And the jigsaw was completed in
October when operations manager Jim
Graham joined from UK market-leading
co