07 March 2007
NORFOLK'S HIDDEN JEWEL.
Norfolk builder and joinery manufacturer JS HAY's successful completion of a new Roman Catholic parish church in the pilgrimage centre of Walsingham was one of the highlights of a memorable 2006 for the family-owned firm.
The £1.3m project to build the new Church of the Annunciation underlined JS HAY's reputation for quality and reliability – a high regard which is enabling this relatively small firm to prosper despite the might of much larger national competitors.
Lingwood-based JS HAY enjoyed an excellent 2006, with pre-tax profits trebling to £326,000, and turnover up by more than 50pc on the previous year. This was achieved without a significant rise in overheads, costs or staffing levels.
A healthy order book suggests that the business – which employs around 80 people – is well-placed to continue its success throughout 2007 and beyond.
“I believe it’s quite an achievement for a family-owned firm of our size to be competing successfully with the regional arms of the big national companies,” said managing director Rob Lockhart, grandson of company founder Jock Hay.
“Our success is due largely to our workforce – we have skilled craftsmen and managers with years of experience who all take pride in their work. In addition, whilst being large enough to maintain a professional outlook, we are small enough to be flexible and responsive, so if our clients need to speak to us they’re never more than one phone-call away from a decision-maker.”
JS HAY undertakes a wide variety of projects for public and private sector clients, and is particularly active in the areas of affordable housing, education, and prestigious house building and restoration projects.
Working hand-in-hand with JS HAY building contractors is the specialist joinery division, which can also supply joinery to other contractors or to private clients. Quality joinery produced by JS HAY is a key feature in many award-winning schemes including the Forum, in Norwich.
The firm’s staff comprises 18 managerial and administrative personnel based at its offices in Lingwood, and 15 in the adjoining joinery and workshop. The remaining 50 staff are employed on various sites across the country.
For the last three years the firm has been in a strategic partnership with the Circle Anglia group of housing associations, building more than 100 new homes. Meanwhile its framework agreement with Norfolk Property Services saw the firm involved in seven school projects last year, the most recent being for an extension at Hainford First School.
Ambitious private projects have recently included the luxury conversion of five barns at Manor Farm, South Creake, near Burnham Market, and the restoration of one of the prime properties in North Norfolk, The Manor at Burnham Thorpe, for businessman Charles Dunstone, founder of Carphone Warehouse.
JS HAY's build history covers all aspects of the industry, and includes the new magistrates’ courts at Great Yarmouth, the imposing Hillington Hall, as well as commercial buildings, sports halls, stately home restorations and work on many other halls and manors; it has completed high-profile new build projects, environmentally controlled glasshouses, retail warehouses, barn conversions, church projects and medical facilities.
In addition to ongoing housing and education projects, the current workload includes barn conversion work at Tattersett and a new care home for the St Martin’s Housing Trust, in Norwich. The firm is also about to start work on a library extension at Wymondham High School.
ENDS
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