Business

Fit-out firm Marcon flying high after heritage contract wins

An artist's impression of the new Biggin Hill Memorial Museum in London, on which Marcon has secured a major fit-out contract
An artist's impression of the new Biggin Hill Memorial Museum in London, on which Marcon has secured a major fit-out contract An artist's impression of the new Biggin Hill Memorial Museum in London, on which Marcon has secured a major fit-out contract
By Gary McDonald Business Editor

SPECIALIST fit-out firm Marcon has enjoyed a bumper last trading year in which it has firmly established itself as one of the UK and Ireland's most successful niche players in the heritage-build space.

The company, started in 2004 by Mark McElroy and Mark O'Connor and which is headquartered at Kilbegs Road in Antrim, has posted a pre-tax profit of £3.1 million in the year to March compared to £2.4 million in its previous trading year.

That came on a vastly increased turnover of more than £33.5m (in 2017 its sales were £26.2m).

The directors say the group - which is made up of Marcon Fit-Out Ltd and Marcon Fit-Out (Ireland), which was incorporated in Dublin in September 2016 - has continued to enjoy income from key customers, which it expects to see for the foreseeable future.

The company's order book remains strong, with Marcon continuing to win new business across Britain and Ireland.

Marcon enjoyed a number of significant contract wins in the last trading year, including landing the deal to deliver the famous dinosaur skeleton Dippy to the Ulster Museum.

Since September 'Dippy On Tour' has seen the dinosaur outside its London home of the Natural History Museum for the first time since its original unveiling in 1905.

In May it also won a major deal to fit out the new £5 million Biggin Hill Memorial Museum in London, which will focus on the airfield's role during the Battle of Britain and rest of the Second World War.

Those project further enhanced Marcon's reputation as a leading fit-out provider within the UK heritage sector, coming on the back of earlier work on the Seamus Heaney Centre in Bellaghy and the American Air Museum at Imperial War Museums.

Marcon's portfolio of previous specialist projects includes Titanic Belfast, though it has also bagged lucrative deals with Toys R Us in Britain, while over the last decade it has worked on more than 250 fit-outs for fast-food giant McDonald's.

According to accounts filed with Companies House, Marcon (which has regional offices in Sheffield and Middlesbrough) had 56 staff last year (up from 52 in 2017), and its total pay bill rose from just shy of £2 million to £2.35m.

The directors who held office during the year were Mark O'Connor and Mark McElroy, though the latter resigned in September past. The two directors were paid a combined £78,514.