Modular specialist Integra Buildings has practised what it preaches by moving into flagship self-built offices manufactured just yards away in its own factory units.
Fast-growing Integra is now operating from the state-of-the-art office building on an expanded site at Paull, East Yorkshire.
The company has consolidated all its operations at the site east of Hull as part of a £3m investment programme, including building the showpiece offices.
The two-storey, modular office building is a showcase for the quality of design, build and materials Integra offers to its growing client base and features facilities that are also available to the company’s customers and suppliers.
Integra is one of the UK’s leading designers and manufacturers of innovative and bespoke modular buildings. The business has enjoyed rapid growth, driven by its reputation for quality, project performance and innovation.
The company celebrated the successful completion of its investment strategy with a VIP event and official opening of the offices, performed by Sir Gary Verity, Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, and attended by Integra’s partners, customers and suppliers.
Managing Director Gary Parker said: “This year is the 21st of the business and it’s really fitting we’ve moved into our new offices, as part of our consolidation on this site, because it marks our coming of age. It’s a hugely important milestone for the business.
“As well as this new office building, we’ve created bespoke manufacturing facilities that have doubled our production capacity.
“We’re in a growing industry, an industry of the present and the future, and we now feel we have facilities which reflect that.
“We’re certainly putting ourselves on the map and taking the business to the next level.”
Integra is at the forefront of the modular sector of the construction industry, which is expanding rapidly as clients recognise how innovative off-site building solutions make projects easier, more cost effective and faster, with no compromise on quality.
Integra manufactures modular buildings for permanent installation across a wide range of sectors, including sport, leisure, education, healthcare and commercial operations, as well as highly-durable, anti-vandal modular buildings used predominantly for office and welfare facilities on construction sites.
Mr Parker said the company was passionate about banishing the out-dated “prefabs” image of the modular industry and added: “We believe modular building is the way forward for the construction industry.
“In fact, our new offices illustrate that perfectly. The office building is a showroom for the business, as well as a great environment for our staff.
“You wouldn’t know it was a modular building. You would also think it was constructed in situ. In fact, it was built in our new factory units, in 16 sections, craned onto foundations over a weekend and assembled like lego.
“It showcases the quality of materials and design available to our clients and we think it has a ‘wow’ factor. We can offer this quality of build and specification to our customers, or even go beyond it.”
Integra has relocated its office functions and some manufacturing facilities from a site it has now vacated at nearby Burstwick.
The new 8,300 sq ft (770 sq m) office building is unusual for a modular construction as it has high ceilings, a concrete first-floor base and no central supports, enabling the open plan layout.
The interior fit-out has been designed by Hull-based Chameleon Business Interiors to create a contemporary and aspirational working environment.
The ground floor features a business lounge, training areas and meeting rooms, all of which are also available to Integra’s customers and suppliers. Integra’s staff are based on the open plan first floor in an environment that promotes communication, collaboration and swift decision-making.
Installation of KCOM’s Lightstream ultrafast broadband also means Integra can download and transfer huge design files in seconds and video conferencing is used, whenever possible, to save on the time, cost and environmental impact of travelling to client meetings.
Mr Parker added: “Our new home has given our staff a massive boost and it’s been great for recruitment.
“It makes such a difference when you can invite candidates to job interviews in offices like this. It gives us a real competitive advantage.
“We also now have the room and the facilities to expand and enhance our training programmes and take on our first apprentices for several years. We’ve already recruited seven local young people as apprentices – five joiners, a welder and a design technician.
“That’s just the start – we expect to add as many more apprentices over the next 12 months and we intend to create a pipeline of talent for the business many years into the future.”
The new facilities will support further growth for the company, which is on target to deliver record turnover of £24m in 2018, up by more than £5m in just two years.
Integra is currently delivering the biggest contract in its history – a £4.6m project to deliver sports facilities over four sites in Liverpool under the £200m Parklife Football Hubs Programme developed by the Football Foundation and Sport England.
Other flagship current schemes include a £2.1m project for rail franchise owner Govia to deliver welfare facilities for train drivers and crews across the country, and work with FTSE-listed construction company Interserve on a school project in Leeds.
Integra’s investment programme has created almost 20 new jobs, taking the total workforce into three figures. Integra also supports the employment of many more local people, with 90% of its supply chain within a 30-mile radius.
Integra’s achievements and growth have also earned the business a series of accolades. Integra was named in the London Stock Exchange 2018 “1,000 Companies to Inspire Britain” report of the UK’s fastest-growing and most dynamic small and medium-sized companies. The company was also named as Medium-sized Business of the Year in the 2017 Hull Daily Mail Business Awards and claimed the 2018 East Riding of Yorkshire Council Chairman’s Business Award for companies with more than 50 employees.
The developments on the Paull site have been supported by a grant of almost £200,000 from the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership’s Growing the Humber programme, facilitated by East Riding of Yorkshire Council.
