Specialist contractor secures £35m deal

A Co Down firm has secured deals worth £35m on high-profile building projects in the south-east of England.

Moira-based McMullen Architectural, a glazing and curtain walling specialist, has announced a series of major contract wins in London and Oxford.

McMullen will provide facade for five high-profile projects worth £35m over the next 15 months - including Regent's Place, a sustainably designed 13-acre fully managed estate in central London - while working directly for British Land.

Additional contracts announced by the firm will see McMullen providing specialist facades for a £2.7m student accommodation project, Building T6, at King's Cross, an £8.5m contract for one of the tallest residential towers in London, an £8m facade project for the 22-storey Aldgate Tower where work has restarted following a postponement in October 2008 and a £5.3m contract to provide glazing facades for two new medical research buildings on the Oxford University campus.

The firm was founded in 1971 by the late Edward McMullen to service the domestic glazing market.

McMullen Architectural managing director Ted McMullen, Edward's son, said that the contracts are a sign of a recovery in the construction business.

"These contracts are a major boost for McMullen and a reflection of the specialist skill set and services we provide, plus our ability to compete for and deliver major construction projects," he said.

"There are signs that the recovery of the construction sector is beginning to gather momentum in Great Britain and hopefully we will see a similar trend occurring in the local sector.

"These projects represent unique challenges to meet the very high specifications and it reflects our position in the marketplace that the tenders we compete for are usually only against continental or Chinese competition.

"The bespoke design requirements of such prestigious developments in London require us to have a large and experienced design office, which now numbers over 50, mostly based in Moira, Co Down, but some are based in Warsaw, Poland," said Mr McMullen.