Newry-headquartered firm creating 50 new jobs

Mac-group has secured contracts worth more than €90m (£78m) across the UK and Ireland and is recruiting for 50 new positions.

The Newry-headquartered construction and fit out firm is a privately-owned main contractor specialising in the construction, refurbishment and fit-out of commercial real estate. It has offices in Newry, Dublin, London and Birmingham and employs a direct workforce of over 140.

One of the largest contracts won by mac-group in this period is for the construction of a mixed-use development for a leading hotel chain in Liverpool. The project involves construction and fit-out of a 200-bed hotel with retail and office space.

Paul McKenna, CEO of mac-group, said: “Our service offering includes construction and specialist fit out of commercial buildings and as a result we have won key greenfield and brownfield construction projects both here and in the UK.”

As well as the Liverpool project, mac-group is building 110,000 sq ft of new office space at the former IPC House on Shelbourne Road in Dublin and a phased build on a greenfield site that will deliver over 1,000,000 sq ft of logistics hub for Mountpark.

mac-group’s interior fit out business unit maintains strong growth in parallel, with prestigious awards such as a state-of -the-art city centre fit out for Barclays, a 134,000 sq ft high-spec headquarters for a confidential client in Dublin’s docklands area, and a £9m cut-and-carve refurbishment in London’s Westminster.

The company’s tagline is Dynamic Construction People. An obsessive focus on customer satisfaction is the reason for the company’s 93% repeat business. CEO Paul McKenna said the company doesn’t always come in with the lowest bid but wins contracts based on added value and customer service.

McKenna added: “The Irish office market remains buoyant with take-up 19 per cent above the five-year average in 2017. Dublin city centre continues to be an attractive location for many FDIs and we’re seeing businesses upsizing into long-term lease properties.

“Our existing order book is extremely healthy with a secured pipeline of work for 2018/19 which will help us to grow all aspects of the business, particularly in the UK fit out and construction markets. We are well on track to achieving our forecast turnover of €185m for 2018.”