Construction manufacturer Tobermore has confirmed plans to invest £8 million in a state-of-the-art production facility at its south Derry manufacturing plant and also spend £4 million in new jobs, including the creation of a dedicated technical design team to support its commercial customers.
The expansion of its operations comes to meet growing demand, driven by current and anticipated growth in housebuilding and public realm projects across the UK.
The concrete and paving specialist already has more than 400 people on its payroll, but in the coming months will be recruiting another 34 people.
Tobermore’s design team will be expanded to provide a complete design, project and technical support service for architects, engineers, and ground workers as well as house builders and local authorities working within private and public sectors.
It will also be recruiting 11 new specification managers and 10 new roles within the commercial/business-to-business team, including two national house builder managers, four strategic account managers and four retaining wall team members, to support its continually growing customer base in Britain.
In addition, Tobermore - which last year had sales of £77m and made a pre-tax profit of £10.9m - will make an £8m investment in the construction of a new 3,000 square metres factory capable of producing 1,000,000m2 paving blocks a year, increasing the company’s block paving production by 25%.
The facility will be equipped with industry leading manufacturing equipment that will deliver high quality paving products at speed.
Tobermore, founded in 1942, opened its £10 million production facility in 2020, expanding block paving production capacity, and its £8.6 million manufacturing unit in 2022 to increase production of paving slabs.
These two investments have enabled the company to scale up overall block paving production by approximately 25% and slab production by approximately 40% compared to this time five years ago.
“We know the industry is preparing for considerable growth in the construction of new homes and infrastructure, and this investment shows that Tobermore is ready to support our customers across the supply chain as they design, build, and supply the materials for their projects,” says Kathryn Robinson, head of sales at Tobermore.
“Our plans ensure that we have the right people, facilities, and equipment in place to meet both the immediate need and an anticipated upsurge in customer demand.”
She added: “It’s an exciting time to be joining Tobermore. We have ambitious growth plans and are making a significant investment to make them happen.”
Tobermore’s block paving, permeable paving, paving flags, steps, kerbs, edging and channels, walling and masonry, retaining walls and eco paving and walling products can be seen in an array of settings, from hospitals, hotels, shopping centres and schools, to council public realm schemes, holiday parks and airport terminals.
High profile schemes the firm has been associated with in previous years include Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport, the Olympic Way at Wembley Stadium, Tottenham Hotspur Training Academy at Enfield and the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.
As well as recruiting new staff, the company has made 11 internal promotions. Among them, Anna McAleer, currently head of specification (national) & commercial sales (Ireland), and Lee Blackburn, head of commercial sales (GB), will be promoted to joint heads of strategic growth in Britain.
“We value our people and always look to reward their hard work and dedication by promoting internally,” says Laura McGlade, head of people at Tobermore.
“We do everything we can to equip our teams with the right resources, expertise, skills, and training to empower them to progress and develop their careers with us.”
