During the course of 50 years (and counting…) with Nottingham-headquartered North Midland Construction, Irishman Martin Queally worked his way up from being a labourer to become MD of the utilities division, which has an annual turnover of around £50m. We caught up with the Clare native to recount his extraordinary success story.
“I came here [to Nottingham] in 1964 and the company had been set up by Major Terence Moyle in 1946,” relates operations director Martin Queally regarding his initial involvement with North Midland Construction, the company he has served with distinction for half a century. “I started working for them in ’65 and have been here since. I was MD of the utilities division for more than ten years up until three years ago, but then became operations director on a part-time basis. I’m semi-retired now but still put in a few days.”
Martin’s rise through the ranks is all the more impressive when one considers that he was never an engineer – just a streetwise fella who worked hard and learned the ropes at ground level. Having started out as a labourer, he took over as site agent in 1970 and then became construction manager, contracts manager, general manager and director; then MD.
That he achieved so many promotions and went almost to the very top of the company speaks volumes for the kind of operation North Midland Construction is. “It was always promoted as a family business and we were encouraged to progress,” he notes. “Some of the men working here now are grandsons of people who were foremen back in the day.”
North Midland Construction is a UK-based national civil engineering and building contractor with almost 70 years’ experience. With four operational divisions and one subsidiary (Nomenca Ltd.), NMC successfully undertakes construction projects covering the spheres of civil engineering, building and mechanical & electrical contracting.
With their head office in Nottinghamshire, they operate through a number of strategically-placed regional offices covering the whole of the British Isles, offering clients a one-stop shop for their construction requirements.
By developing close relationships with clients, they have been able to secure long-term partnerships, enabling them to offer sustainable, economic solutions. North Midland Construction pride themselves on delivering high-quality solutions in a professional and sustainable manner, backed up with full audit trails through integrated management systems that embrace ISO 9001 / 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certification.
The Highways & Utilities division is an integrated division of NMC delivering highway, structures and public realm schemes across the public and private sectors, as well as utility diversion and installation works for telecommunications and electricity providers. NCM is accredited to work on infrastructure across the telecommunications, electricity and water sectors, including for statutory bodies such as Openreach, Virgin Media, Vodafone, Kingston Communications, Northern Power Grid, Severn Trent Water, Anglian Water, Wessex Water and many others.
For example, they operate a national contract with BT Openreach, through Carillion Telent, undertaking works across their telecommunications network. They are approved to undertake diversion, installation and cable works, as well as manhole construction and box-building works. Since 2011 they have undertaken works to establish the Next Generation Access high-speed fibre network across the midlands region.
They have also worked for Vodafone (and formally Cable & Wireless) for many years as part of a national contract, undertaking duct, cabinet and cable works across all areas of England. In early 2013, they secured a major additional contract, Project Maximus, to integrate the existing Cable & Wireless and Vodafone networks.
“Utilities these days are nearly all geared towards broadband,” says Martin. “It’s not as complex as you might imagine. As long as you have the proper machinery to do it, and the right people, then it’s relatively straightforward. We used to have a great influx of Irish workers but we don’t have that anymore. They are coming into the UK now in much smaller numbers – in ones and twos – and they don’t really go into utility work.”
The utilities division of NMC had increased tenfold during Martin’s time with the company, from a turnover of around £5m to £50m. “Between the four divisions, turnover is approximately £200m,” the Clare man states. “We do duct work mainly, fibre cable and copper. We design, install and commission in the cable end of ducting. We’ve worked all over Great Britain for BT, putting duct on telecommunication lines and we also do a lot of work regularly for Virgin Media and CityFibre.
“A lot of the work involves working on existing infrastructures in addition to new routes for broadband. But all the CityFibre work has been new work from Day One. The civil engineering side of it would comprise building large chambers underground to accommodate the cables that are going to go in.
“We have just completed a £5m job for CityFibre in Peterborough and also have a new one to deliver up to 80 miles of broadband to businesses in Kirklees, Yorkshire. We’ve also secured a lot of work in the midlands with Severn Trent, including a ten-year, £800m project.
“We cover all of Great Britain, including Scotland and Wales, and I have worked in every area over the years.”
Will a point come where the utilities sector of construction is saturated and there is no longer a need for underground cables etc.? Will technological advances kill it in its tracks? “No, I believe it will continue because broadband will be taken over by something else even greater than fibre cable, which could be satellite or wireless, but installations will still be required. In 1965, people told me this work would be finished in ten years but there are companies still coming into the UK from abroad today and spending millions on broadband.”
And what about the man from the beautiful village of Fanore in North Clare? How long will he remain involved? “When you’re at the coalface, you don’t know a whole lot else,” he concludes. “I’ll be 70 this year and I’ll probably review my career again after my birthday. Whatever happens, I’ve enjoyed it enormously.”
It’s been a great personal success story and also a mutually-beneficial one as the man from County Clare has contributed enormously to the extraordinary success and vibrancy of one of the largest construction companies in the UK midlands.
North Midland Construction PLC,
Nunn Close,
The County Estate,
Huthwaite,
Sutton-in-Ashfield,
Nottinghamshire,
NG17 2HW.
Tel: 01623 515008
Fax: 01623 440071
E: [email protected]
Taken from Building Ireland magazine Vol 1 No 2, Winter 2015
