Construction firm targets quadrupling of turnover in two years
Manchester developer Placefirst Construction has announced plans to almost quadruple turnover from £28m this year to £110m by 2020.
Central to this is a trio of senior appointments by the firm, the construction subsidiary of Placefirst.
Frank Mondino, former area director of Keepmoat, heads the appointments, which include commercial director Pete Adams and senior technical manager, Johnson Mulk.
Mr Mondino, who will be responsible for driving growth, is the former North West area managing director of Keepmoat Regeneration, where he managed a development portfolio worth almost £100m, and a 1,200-strong workforce, including subcontractors.
During 22 years at Keepmoat Regeneration and its predecessor Bramall Construction, he worked across several sectors including residential and commercial, with achievements centred around housing.
Typically delivering around 500 residential units annually within a mix of tenures including rented and open market sale, retirement and supported housing, alongside refurbishment and maintenance of around 5,000 properties, across the North West of England for both private and social landlords.
He will take up the newly-created post of managing director of Placefirst Construction and will head up a team of 21 specialists, which form a key element of a total workforce of 44.
Pete Adams was formerly commercial manager at Wates, where he played a key role in major schemes such as £60m high-spec student accommodation at Circle Square, Manchester for Select Property Group and an £82m project to deliver 1,500 homes and apartments.
Prior to his time at Wates he held the same post at Galliford Try Partnerships having been regional chief quantity surveyor with Lovell Partnerships.
Johnson Mulk was formerly technical manager at Prospect (GB) where he was solely responsible for the technical performance of the business and specialised in key areas of expertise, including, planning, surveying, civil infrastructure, structural engineering and the delivery of feasibility reports on brownfield and greenfield sites.
The award-winning developer, which began life refurbishing derelict terraced properties in small northern towns, now benefits from a strong national pipeline of development sites that will enable the company to build 4,000 homes for market rent by 2022.
Placefirst Construction is the in-house construction arm of the business and currently acts as the principal contractor for all of the company’s developments.
Placefirst has existing and occupied rental residential schemes in Accrington, Welsh Streets in Liverpool, West End One and West End Two in Morecambe, Cross Heath Grove, Leeds and The Green, Hartlepool.
The firm’s secured pipeline of housing developments sites include Bolton, County Durham, Sheffield, Morecambe and Wolverhampton.
With more than 1,500 Placefirst residents, the business has 693 houses built or under construction and has a land pipeline of 2,085 units.
David Smith-Milne, managing director and founder of Placefirst, said: “The essential and additional skills and invaluable experience of Frank, Johnson and Pete will help our excellent construction team to realise our ambition of doubling our housing output in just two years thanks to a strong and growing pipeline of projects in the private rented sector of the North and Midlands.”
