A Merseyside family business that’s grown to become a multi-million-pound UK construction company has set up a new cleaning service to drive future growth.
Sterling Services (Northern) Ltd, which started life as a Knowsley groundworks company turning over £250k in 2006 has just set up a contract cleaning division which looks set to push turnover beyond the £12m mark this financial year.
Created to strengthen the business’s appeal as a true one stop shop for clients, Sterling will now offer construction, cleaning, electrical and maintenance in-house.
Under the company’s ambitious CEO Paul Blennerhassett, Sterling increased turnover by 200% in the two years to 2008 before launching a building division in 2009, maintenance division in 2011 and electrical in 2019.
Now employing over 75 full-time staff and apprentices, the company continues to work with some of the UK’s biggest companies including Asda and Certas Energy and across the NHS, MOD, local authorities, and registered providers in the housing sector.
And it looks set to go beyond £12m forecasted turnover with the addition of the cleaning arm which has secured work with major blue-chip clients who provide the large distribution centres for the likes of Pfizer, Tesco, and Heinz.
Paul Blennerhassett said: “Despite the difficulties of the pandemic and previous economic downturns we’ve managed to weather the storm and continue to grow – and I think investing in our people and expanding our services despite uncertainty has been vital to our success.
“As we’re in construction, electrical and maintenance already, it made sense to invest in cleaning and introduce Chris Male as head of this division to add another string to our bow.
“Focusing on contract cleaning, high level cleaning, sparkle clean and builders cleaning post construction, we’re already forecasting a £500,000 growth in this division alone for the year ending 2023.”
The cleaning division comes in the wake of the appointment of a new Head of Operations, Ian Stone, formerly of Seddon Construction who has experience across many sectors and projects including Manchester Town Hall and Central Library, Clayton Square Shopping Centre in Liverpool, and British Nuclear Fuels in Preston.
Paul added: “We’re looking forward to 2023 with a great optimism with these new strengths within our business having secured positions on the Rise, Halton Housing Trust, and Fusion21 Frameworks. We’ve also strengthened our relationships with Morgan Sindall, Equans and Qwest within the wider development community.”
With a head office in Knowsley Business Park, Sterling has also recently opened a second office in St Helens and is looking at a potential Scottish office in 2023 to accommodate its growing workforce and live projects across education, healthcare, social housing, energy and retail.
