THE north's largest construction group Graham in Hillsborough has seen its live project portfolio eclipse £400 million - and that's just in Northern Ireland.
The privately-owned building and civil giant revealed the figure after reporting group turnover for the year 2016/2017 rose by 11 per cent to £565m (from £508m a year earlier), with profits in excess of £16 million.
And it coincides with Graham - which employs 2,100 people across its UK and Ireland operations, half of them from Northern Ireland - being named as contractor of the year at the UK Building Awards in London, the most prestigious recognition of excellence within the UK construction industry.
Graham's current workload in its home patch includes a major redevelopment of Acute Services at the Ulster Hospital (worth £180m), development of the A6 Randalstown to Castledawson (£130m), the Grand Central Hotel for the Hastings Group in Belfast (£53m), and a student residential scheme on Little Patrick Street in Belfast (£21.6m).
That workload is being done in tandem with significant GB-based projects including the London Borough of Barnet’s £150m major works portfolio on a five year basis; a £35m residential project in Manchester; and the £163m Baird and Anchor projects for NHS Grampian in Scotland.
Indeed Graham Construction is currently working on more than 100 live sites (50 building, 44 civil and 14 fit-out) across Britain and Ireland, where is operates from 15 offices.
“But we're especially delighted that our live project portfolio has reached a value in excess of £400 million just in Northern Ireland," the group's executive chairman Michael Graham said.
"We couldn't achieve this growth and sustained development without our fantastic dedicated staff. Their experience and expertise is one of our unique selling points, and winning the Major Contractor of the Year award is a testament to their professionalism. The accolade has firmly established Graham as a major player in the construction sector across the UK and Ireland."
He added: "Our core markets remain strong, given the UK Government's infrastructure spend and a strong pipeline of opportunity in building, interior fit-out and facilities management.
"Our business units provide us with a well-balanced service offering within the group and all are underpinned by a healthy order book in excess of £1.1 billion."
Graham Group, whose records date back more than 200 years, deals in construction, asset management and project investment businesses.
It has risen from 140 to its current position of 16 in The Sunday Times Top Track 250, which ranks the UK's mid-market growth private companies with the biggest sales.
It also recently achieved Investors in People Platinum standard, one of only two companies in Northern Ireland to currently hold this level of accreditation.
