Great Lakes: Scottish activity helps boost profits for facade specialist

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Ravenscraig Sports Facility

LAKESMERE Glasgow has built up an enviable portfolio of projects across Scotland, having worked on such high-profile schemes as the regional sports facility in Ravenscraig which features a staggering 43 different roofs and the Xscape ski and leisure centre in Braehead.

The educational sector has also been a booming market and the company has picked up a number of significant contracts recently for student accommodation with Edinburgh’s Napier University including schemes for the new Bainfield residences in Fountainbridge.
Currently, the team is working on an unusual stone-look cladding facade for the University of Strathclyde’s new Technology Innovation Centre and a complex glazing and copper-cladding package at the new University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) campus at Inverness College.
Work is also progressing well on the extension to Glasgow’s Silverburn Shopping Centre, where Lakesmere is undertaking the installation of a striking cladding package that includes insulated composite panels, sinusoidal twin-skin cladding and feature patterned and coloured stainless steel shingles.
These projects come against a backdrop of Lakesmere Group Limited reporting a healthy increase in pre-tax profits and turnover in the period ending 31st January 2014.
Group turnover has grown to £86.3m, an increase of 55% from the 2013 figure of £55.7m, with profits before tax up 78.5% from £1,115,874 to £1,991,620. Expecting to build on this strong foundation, the Lakesmere Group predicts turnover to exceed circa £100m this year.
The group’s successful financial performance has been underpinned by the expansion into the major glass facades market, demand for which been fuelled by the recent high-rise building boom in London.
As well as securing a number of high value and high profile contracts in the UK, including Heathrow Airport’s new Terminal 2a, Lakesmere’s overseas ventures also continue to thrive.
Based on the business model implemented and managed in the UK for the past two decades, Lakesmere’s operations in the Middle East are enjoying organic growth after
securing a number of contracts, a number of which are in the aviation sector.
Lakesmere Group’s current order book includes various work for Crossrail, including the new Crossrail Stations at Canary Wharf and Liverpool Street.
The specialist has also been appointed to work on a number of
contracts in London’s thriving hi-rise, mixed use and residential market, including major developments in Elephant and Castle and Kings Cross.