Specialist construction business Pure Fitout will spend €1.2 million hiring apprentices over the next five years to aid it in meeting demand, the company said.
Belfast- and Dublin-based Pure Fitout specalises in fitting out offices, hotels, pubs and other business premises.
The company intends to invest the sum over the next five years hiring 20 apprentices to tackle a growing labour shortage in construction and meet projected demand for its services.
Alan Stewart, the company's head of business development, said Pure Fitout would hire the trainees across the board, in traditional areas such as joinery and metalwork, as well as quantity surveying and site management.
He acknowledged that construction faced competition from IT and other industries in recruiting young people.
“We need to make this industry attractive again,” Mr Stewart said, adding that it needed to do this by going through schools and colleges.
He pointed out that apprentices could earn money while they trained, and gain skills that could be used anywhere in the world.
New contracts
Pure Fitout expects turnover to grow at least 25 per cent over the next two years as it takes on new contracts. “We are making sure that we are in a position to fulfill all of those commitments,” Mr Stewart said.
It earned revenue last year of almost €16 million, not far short of the €16.7 million that it generated in 2019, the year before the pandemic struck, hitting construction and hospitality.
The company is working on a number of hotels, and on the Heysham offices at North Wall Quay, among other projects.
It has done work for the Westbury, Radisson Blu, Center Parcs and others. Pure Fitout has completed several projects for the Press Up Hospitality Group, including the Dean hotels in Dublin and Cork, the Residence on Stephen's Green and the old Stella Cinema in Rathmines.
Mr Stewart remarked that Pure Fitout had been “doing really well” despite the fact that Covid-19 restrictions hit hospitality, a key industry for recruiting clients.
He explained that many businesses wanted to spend money on fit-outs ahead of full reopening. At the same time, the company is also taking on longer-term contracts.
