黑洞社区

Clients of former Lakesmere company McMullen Facades are set to meet with the firm鈥檚 new owners JRL in order to develop a plan of action for current jobs.

JRL Group director Kevin Keegan said there were plans to complete the Northern Irish company鈥檚 jobs that are already underway.

鈥淲e are hoping to complete as many existing jobs as possible,鈥� Keegan said. 鈥淲e are currently trying to go out and meet with as many of the clients as we can [this] week.鈥�

Keegan, who would not comment how much it had paid for the business, said its plan was to get McMullen operating as usual as fast as possible.

鈥淭he aim is for everyone to keep their jobs and get them back to doing what they do as fast as possible. We will be keeping the same managerial team in place as we have every confidence in them,鈥� Keegan said.

The company鈥檚 sites at Moira and Portadown in Northern Ireland will both continue operating.

But legal issues surround the company鈥檚 name, with Keegan saying JRL is currently getting advice on whether it can stick with the McMullen Facades name.

鈥淜eeping the company as McMullen Facades is definitely something we want to do but it鈥檚 something we want to do properly,鈥� Keegan said. 鈥淲e want to keep it as McMullen Facades and if not, something as close as possible to that.鈥�

Explaining the decision to make a move for McMullen, Keegan said it was a chance for JRL to bring in a key trade under its own management umbrella.

He added: 鈥淚t presented a rare opportunity to secure a business of this calibre. We think it is a world-class business that fits into our business model of keeping key elements in-house. Moving forward our goal is to grow the McMullen business. It is a world-class business that has the faculty for greater output. More broadly we believe the acquisition will open more opportunities for the wider JRL Group, particularly in the commercial sector.鈥�

McMullen鈥檚 most recent financial results for the year ended January 2016 saw it post turnover of 拢37.3m, compared to just under 拢26m for the year before.

In the past, it has worked on projects including the London 2012 media centre at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and The Obel 鈥� the tallest building in Belfast. More recent jobs include the Foster & Partners-designed Crossrail station at Canary Wharf (pictured) along with a residential tower it is currently working on at Lendlease鈥檚 Elephant & Castle redevelopment in south London.

JRL鈥檚 move came just 48 hours after the McMullen went into administration after being caught up in the collapse of parent company Lakesmere which went into administration at the beginning of the month..

At the time joint administrator Peter Allen of Deloitte, who was also appointed as an administrator of Lakemere after the business collapsed on 3 November, said the firm had simply been caught up in the Lakesmere collapse.

McMullen, which was set up in 1971 and was bought by Lakesmere in 2012, employs 270 staff.