Bringing Aycliffe Business Park Together | 21
A welder at work on the
Finley Structures shop
floor, at its premises on
Aycliffe Business Park.
An aerial shot of the Victoria Gate shopping
development during construction.
FINLEY STRUCTURES
WIN PRESTIGIOUS
LEEDS SHOPPING
CENTRE CONTRACT
Newton Aycliffe construction company Finley Structures has been awarded a multi-million pound deal
to help construct a £650m shopping development in Leeds.
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The family firm, which has recently
completed steelwork on Hitachi Rail Europe’s
train-building site for Shepherd Construction,
was handed a 2,300-tonne job to construct
a major part of Victoria Gate, in Leeds city
centre.
Victoria Gate is an exciting addition to the
vibrant shopping scene in Leeds, which will
include the Victoria Gate arcade, currently
being constructed by Finley Structures, which
will include stores, restaurants, cafes and
leisure space in an elegantly designed twostreet arcade linking Victoria Quarter to the
John Lewis store.
The development is expected to deliver up
to 1,000 retail and hospitality jobs and 1,000
construction employment opportunities.
Finley Structures was awarded a 20week contract from Sir Robert McAlpine’s
Manchester office, to fabricate and
erect 2,300 tonnes of steel, after being
recommended for the job by the firm’s
Newcastle office following the successful
completion of Nissan’s new car plant in
Washington.
The work is being done on behalf of
national retail developer Hammerson
Property, which boasts a real estate portfolio
of around £7
.7billion, with investments in 22
major shopping centres and 22 retail parks,
providing a total of 1.7million sq m of retail
space.
Finley Structures operations manager Jim
Graham said: “This is a very prestigious
contract for us and we’re delighted to be
doing this work for Sir Robert McAlpine on
behalf of Hammerson.
“Retail is fairly new to us, but is an area
we’ve been looking to explore for some time
now, and to get on to Hammerson’s supply
chain is a major coup for the company.
“It’s a very high maintenance job. In retail
there tends to be a lot of alterations and you
have to react very quickly to change, which
we’ve been doing very well to date and we’re
currently on programme.
“It’s another indication of how far Finley
Structures has come in the last three-to-four
years, with large-scale projects like this now
becoming run-of-the-mill stuff to us.
”
McAlpine has praised Finley Structures for
its “exceptional” safety performance on the
Victoria Gate contract.
The firm’s North West regional manager
Simon Trevor said: “Not only are Finley
Structures the only company to have scored
a KPI for Health and Safety and over 80%
during the month of February, but they are
the first and only to have achieved this in our
region within the last 12 months.
“Our supply chain represents 80% of our
business, therefore it is the collective effort
which counts on trying o change cultures to
effect positive outcomes, so I congratulate
Finley Structures on their exceptional safety
performance.
”
The Victoria Gate contract comes after
Finley Structures, founded by John Finley
in 2000, was given a 2,000-tonne contract
to fabricate and erect the steel frame for
Hitachi’s factory on Aycliffe Business Park
last year.
During a busy 2014, the family firm, which
employs 60 full-time staff, also completed a
1,400-tonne project for Nissan, constructing
the steel frame for the Japanese car
manufacturer’s new facility in Washington, as
well as a 300-tonne contract for the National
Biologics Centre in Darlington for contractors
Interserve.
In addition, Finley Structures worked on
Middlesbrough Council’s state-of-the-art
Sports Village, erecting 500 tonnes of steel
for main contractor Willmott Dixon, while
also completing a 500-tonne contract for
Bam C