Site search for construction ‘factory’

PROCURE Plus Holdings boss Mike Brogan is on the lookout for a 30,000 sq ft factory where he will base the North West’s first off site manufacturing facility for the building sector.

The 60-year-old Mancunian launched his not-for-profit charitable company 10 years ago and it is now involved in £150m worth of building contracts a year.

His Trafford Park, Manchester-based firm currently employs 50 people, but he is now aiming to expand into a purpose-built factory with the overall aim of helping to drive down the cost of housing for first-time buyers.

The Procure Plus chief executive would rather site the factory in Manchester, but acknowledges there may be more grant incentives and lower overall costs in East Lancashire.

His plan is to create site where sections of housing are manufactured in a safer, indoor safe and less chaotic than a building site environment of a factory, increasing the consistency of quality of output.

“We know that builders working in all weathers produce a varied quality of work,” he said.

“By bringing the work indoors and standardising we can reduce costs and increase quality.

“My goal is for those lower costs to be passed on to the buyers.”

Brogan spent years in the insurance industry before launching Procure Plus.

“I was brought up on a council estate in Old Trafford, but I managed to end up in a nice job,” he said.

“Whenever I went back to Old Trafford I used to see the lads I grew up with in a bit of a mess. I always wanted to do something about it.”

Brogan went on to study sociology and philosophy at Lancaster University an experience which has clearly consolidated his social conscience.

Brogan says the he is budgeting about £2.5m for the total cost of the factory, which will initially employ 50 people with the objective of taking 30 more year on year.

“We will be stimulating the demand of a competitively priced, quality product,” he said. “My objective is to work towards a position where houses are affordable, primarily for first-time buyers to get their foot on the housing ladder.”

Brogan points out that while it is widely recognised the UK needs 500,000 new houses a year, less than half that number are being provided.

At the same time, his new factory will act as a skills academy to help people who have been excluded from employment for one reason or another get back into work.

“Our factory will act as a skills academy where people can learn construction and assembly on site in a controlled environment,” he said. “After that, the work will progress on site.”

Brogan says he motivated by the belief that the housing industry is artificially keeping the price of housing higher than it needs to be.

“There is a scarcity of supply, which is forcing prices up,” he said. “The intrinsic value of the house has a relationship to the market value of the house. We want to commoditise the whole thing so people pay what is costs, not what the industry can get away with charging.

“Our aim is for the savings made in building to be passed on to the home buyer.”

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