Northern Ireland group to step up its offsite residential activity with new plant

The McAvoy Group 047

McAvoy Group, the family-owned Northern Ireland-based construction firm, plans to set up an offsite housebuilding factory in England capable of manufacturing 1,000 new homes a year by 2023.

The new factory, whose location McAvoy has not yet revealed, will be overseen by the group’s newly-appointed chief executive, former managing director Eugene Lynch. 

The group is looking at prospective sites and a decision on a location is expected soon.

The homes eventually produced at the factory will be sold under the group’s Smart Living brand.

As chief executive, Lynch – who had been McAvoy’s managing director since 2007 – will lead the group’s expansion into the residential sector.

The chief executive role is a newly created position at the firm, which has appointed Mark Lowry, formerly group director of building materials giant CRH, as its new managing director.

Orla Corr, McAvoy’s chairperson, said: “This is a really exciting phase in the history of the group. We have an ambitious growth strategy in place which includes plans to double the size of our existing business by 2025.

“This will be achieved by retaining and expanding our market share in the healthcare, education, infrastructure and commercial sectors and by growing our modular hire business.”

Last month McAvoy announced it would be factory-producing 40 homes for an affordable housing scheme near Carrickfergus as part of a £4.7m contract for housing association Clanmil.