The market-leading construction group will remain as major sponsors of the Eaton Park-based All-Ireland League club for a further three years.

Patton Group Chairman, David Patton, whose links with the club stretch back to 1951 when he joined as a player, said the sponsorship cemented what has been a successful association between club and sponsor.

“It’s simply great that Neil and I, and indeed everyone within Patton Group, are able to continue our support of Ballymena RFC.  I have had almost 60 years of enjoyment and fun with this great club.  This is not just important to us as a business, but also from a family point of view.

“We are glad to be in the position to give something back to the club.”

Patton Group Managing Director, Neil Patton who has also played for Ballymena, said: “Rugby has helped in the past, opening doors for us to grow our business. So, even in these challenging days from a business perspective, sponsorships like this make sense for commercial organisations and sporting clubs alike.”

David Allen, Chairman of Ballymena RFC continues;

“We are well aware that the professional game is well established and well supported. This makes it even more important that we have the backing of businesses in the community, willing to support the Club.  We are delighted the Patton Group and all of our other valuable sponsors have continued to support the club.”

Leading rapid build company, Western Building Systems, is planning a fantastic open weekend to mark the official opening of its new Headquarters and Showroom at Mountjoy Road, Coalisland.

The new HQ, which will be officially opened on 19 August, is the centrepiece of a £2m expansion programme which has seen its manufacturing and administrative facilities consolidated into one site.

The 6,000 square metre purpose-built panelised development incorporates new offices, staff areas, a showroom and production facilities, and almost doubles the innovative company’s existing capacity at Mountjoy. 

This final phase of the two-year expansion, signalled by the official opening of its new HQ, incorporates new spaces including production facilities for its Park Homes division, a recently acquired timber frame company and a windows and furniture centre.  The new HQ has been designed with the visitor in mind and includes a number of meeting facilities and new reception. It is characterised by bright open spaces flooded with natural light.

According to Managing Director and Founder, Martin McCloskey, the single site location will enable each of The Group’s various divisions to work even closer together to provide truly integrated construction solutions.

He also believes Western has invested in its new facility at just the right time:

“The market has been extremely tough, but I get the real feeling that we’ve turned the corner.  We pride ourselves in our versatility, and because we have invested recently in Mountjoy and diversified into new sectors, we can be much more responsive as fresh opportunities arise.  Over the coming months we will be competing for a range of new projects throughout the UK and Ireland and I believe that our strong experience, coupled with the undoubted skill of our workforce, will enable us to compete effectively in what is unquestionably a tough business development environment.

Martin continues: “This open weekend is an opportunity to get a great deal on one of our fantastic modular homes and for the public to see our range of manufacturing processes for themselves.

“We will have a range of products on display including fully furnished modular homes, modular homes under production, our brand new prototype single ‘Caravan’ unit, a range of modular buildings under construction and our wide range of PVC and aluminium windows and doors.”

Opening times will be: Thursday 19 August 1:00pm to 5:00pm; Friday 20 August ​10:00am to 5:00pm; Saturday 21 August​ 10:00am to 4:00pm and Sunday 22 August​ 12:00noon to 5:00pm.

To coincide with the official opening weekend the Group will be releasing the 2^nd Phase of its highly popular Westclare Court housing development, located one mile from their premises.  Members of the public interested in viewing these great new homes can do so on  Thursday 19/08/10​6:00pm to 8:30pm or Friday 20/08/10​​6:00pm to 8:30pm. Alternatively viewings can be arranged when convenient.

For further details on Westclare Court contact Patsy @ Jas Properties on 07771 855253 or 028 8774 0740 / 028 8774 6737 or e-mail: contact@westernbuild.com.

ONE of the province’s leading recycling companies has launched an innovative new website which will help clients and potential new businesses check just how much energy and costs they could be saving if they recycled properly.

The Tyrone based Envirogreen Recycling which was established last August has also just taken on it’s 20^th employee, another milestone to mark the end of a successful first year in business.

Commenting on the launch of the new site www.envirogreenrecycling.com which allows customers and potential clients to check how much, Carbon Dioxide (Co2) they could save by recycling, managing director of the company, Conor Guy said,

“This innovative website allows clients to log-on to their own secure area and automatically download recycling certificates and reports and set recycling targets as well as allowing potential new businesses the opportunity to view the savings they could be making and the environmental difference the correct recycling procedures can make to their company and ultimately their budgets.”

Incorporated just under a year ago, Mr Guy reveals that he saw a gap in the market for a “reliable and efficient” recycling company.

The company has since gone from strength to strength as its reputation for excellent customer service, innovations and top prices paid for recyclables such as baled cardboard and plastic film has spread.

 “Our clients recognize that we are reinvesting all of our profits back into the company to provide an even greater service to them. The feedback since envirogreenrecycling.com has gone live has been extremely positive. Clients love the ability to login into their personalised web account to monitor recycling levels and download recycling certificates at their convenience and this has been a major attraction for new clients as well.

“Recycling has come a long way over the years but it is still amazing to see how many companies are actually paying expensive bins and skips to dispose of their cardboard and plastic,” adds Mr Guy.

“They are eager to discover more about us when they learn that we actually buy recyclables”. 

It’s been a busy time for the Armagh business man who also this week became a father first the first time and is celebrating the birth of his daughter Emily Maria.

The enterprising workmanship of a leading Mid-Ulster electrical company has come firmly under the spotlight following the recent Asda Brick Awards.

Bellaghy-based, Premier Electrics was named ‘Construction Supplier of the Year’ in a special awards ceremony organised by the retail giant.

The accolade was given for the quality of Premier Electrics’ work on a number of Asda store projects but particularly for its commitment on internal refurbishment works carried out at a store in Clapham.

Gary Brogan, Premier Electrics’ key account holder for Asda, takes up the story.

“We were scheduled to fly a team over to London to carry out an electrical upgrade in the Clapham store when all flights were grounded as a result of the recent problems associated with volcanic ash. But because of the amount of planning that had already gone into preparing for this contract and the fact that we didn’t want to let Asda down, we quickly implemented a revised travel plan involving ferries and car hire.

“We arrived, got the job done and are now delighted that our customer focus and commitment has been recognised in these awards.”

Tony Shivers, Premier Electrics’ Company Manager the company was delighted with the latest award.

“As a company we always endeavour to go the extra mile for our clients. In this particular case, it involved quite a few extra miles! We are proud of our relationship with Asda and that our hard work and characteristic customer focus have been recognised in this way.”

Gary Brogan, representing Premier Electrics, was presented with the award at a gala evening held at the Royal Armories in Leeds.

The Belmore Court & Motel however, which splashed out £2.5m in a major investment a year ago, is celebrating the achievement of 20,000 bed-nights. Located in the centre of Enniskillen in County Fermanagh, the Belmore Court reached the milestone almost exactly one year to the day after the official opening of a 30 bedroom extension. Owner, Terry McCartney revealed today the Belmore Court & Motel’s performance had exceeded even his own optimistic predictions. “The Motel is celebrating its 21st year and it has been gratifying to see a 205% year on year increase in Irish visitors, no doubt swayed by the recent weakness of sterling against the Euro, and a 133% rise in the numbers of Scottish visitors.

“We have invested heavily in our accommodation and staff training and we believe the market has responded to our unique offering. A major element in the success is the Belmore Court & Motel customer ‘experience’. This has been borne out by several independent surveys and is something of which we are very proud. Part of the supporting evidence lies in the fact we have featured regularly in Trip Advisor’s number one and two slots during 2010. Unlike our competitors in the region we don’t have the luxury of enticing our guests with wonderful dining or an opportunity to while away the evenings in a colourful bar. We know our market and therefore we have worked hard at emphasising our offering which centres on superior accommodation, continental breakfast, excellent staff service and undeniable value for money.”

The Belmore Court & Motel was opened by Terry’s father, Raymond McCartney, who was inspired to build a motel after extensive travels in the USA. Terry McCartney concedes his motel has ‘bucked the trend’ in many ways. “We decided to push ahead with what was a serious investment right in the heart of the recession which, I suppose was a surprise to some. But we have great confidence in our product and our people and we always knew the addition of new bedrooms which boast state-of-the-art flatscreen tvs, iPod docking stations and free wifi would add further to our already compelling offering.

“We have experienced particularly strong interest from corporate customers who want to provide their executives with value for money, good quality accommodation and we are looking optimistically towards the summer season with many people likely to opt for a holiday in the UK or Ireland due to the economic downturn.”

The Ulsterman finished sixth in race one and second in race two to move to 9^th place in the overall WTCC standings – having competed in only three meetings.

Turkington’s e-Bay Motors’ BMW, run by the West Surrey Racing team, was lightning quick over the weekend and recorded the fastest time in all three sectors to grab the fastest lap in the second free practice.

Turkington started third on the grid in each of the two races today and helped produce a strong overall BMW performance, with championship contender, Andy Priaulx emerging from fourth on the grid in the second race to deliver BMW’s 50^th WTCC victory, beating Turkington by just over two seconds.

Turkington and his WSR team, who had signed up for an initial three meetings, thanks to sponsorship from a group of private organisations including e-Bay Motors and Lafarge Cement, must now decide whether they should compete in further WTCC rounds.

Today’s results which follow two podium finishes two weeks ago at Brands Hatch mean the Ulsterman is positioned in 9^th place in the overall championship with 60 points.  Rule changes announced by the WTCC promoter, KSO, mean Turkington was unable to score points within the Independents’ Championship.

Had the old rules remained in force Turkington would have been 29 points clear in the Independents’ Championship.

/ends

SIAC Construction, which has its Northern Ireland base just off Belfast’s Boucher Road, has been awarded a major contract to construct a 35km long new motorway scheme in southern Poland at a value of over €450 million.

The scheme, part of the motorway between Krakow and Rzeszów, includes 28 bridges, one of which is a 22 span river bridge. Construction will start in August 2010 and it is expected to take 24 months to complete.

“This will be an exciting challenge for us, but we have already deployed some of our senior managers to Poland to commence working on this project,” said John Geoghegan, SIAC Operations Director.

SIAC (NI) Ltd, which is managed by Kieran Doyle, recently won a major quality award for its environmental improvement scheme in Armagh and the company will shortly complete similar schemes in Lurgan and Portadown town centres.

Commenting on the Polish contract, Ronnie Foreman, Chairman of SIAC (NI) Ltd, said:

“With the downturn in the economy reducing major infrastructure project opportunities across Ireland and Great Britain, we took a strategic decision to try and develop international markets where we saw potential.

“We are delighted to have secured this contract. Experience gained with similar projects and our programme of alliances with major international civil engineering contractors and specialist contractors, means that we are well equipped to undertake multi-disciplinary projects of this sort of scale and complexity.”

Notes to editors

SIAC Construction is a large multi-disciplined construction group with significant operations across the United Kingdom and Ireland. It provides turnkey solutions to the civil engineering and building industries and has extensive commercial development and other investment interests.

SIAC constructed the landmark Boyne Bridge on the M1 motorway, and was also responsible for construction of the motorway south of the River Boyne and the A1/NI Newry/Dundalk link Road. In the last five years, it has also completed two major PPP projects in Ireland, consisting of 110km of high quality motorway.

The store was given the accolade at the industry’s gala Retail Week awards ceremony.  Mid Ulster-based electrical contractor Premier Electrics sent over a 25 man team to undertake the project over a six-month period and it was successfully completed in time for last summer’s busy sales campaign.

Premier Electrics was established by Co Derry man Mark Scullion in 1993, and has steadily built up a reputation for efficiency and excellence in the retail sector with major fit outs on big name brands including Primark, M&S, Argos, Brown Thomas, Arcadia Group, Debenhams, Asda and O₂.

Last year, the company was involved in major multi-million euro projects with Primark across Europe, in Bremen, Liege and Frankfurt.

Premier Electrics’ six-month involvement at Primark Bristol entailed the electrical fit-out of all lighting and power systems, a fire alarm, an anti intruder system, and the installation of CCTV, data and public address systems.  Company Manager, Tony Shivers, described the work as some of the most involved Premier has undertaken with Primark to date:

“There are some really smart new features in this store, both internally and externally.  We installed a range of new light fittings including glim cube units at the front end of the building, lighters to wash the exterior walls, and special batten feature lights to illuminate the impressive facade at night.

Premier Electrics would like to extend our congratulations to Primark Stores Ltd on this ‘Store Design of the Year’ award. We are delighted to have played a part in this successful project.”

Ends

The Ballymena company, part of the Patton Group, took the Gold Award in one of three major categories within the annual Interior Fit-Out Awards organised by the UK-wide Association of Interior Specialists (AIS).

The award provides further recognition of Patton Fit-Out’s ability to compete at the highest level with the UK’s top fit-out organisations.

The £1m Shepherds Bush fit-out project took just ten weeks to complete and included M&E services, internal fixtures and wall, floor and ceiling finishes as well as the installation of non-structural partitions, passenger lifts and a striking balustrade depicting a map of the general area around Shepherds Bush.

The 900sq m library, which was opened in August last year, is located outside one of the main entrances to the 43-acre White City Shopping Centre and boasts wifi, music computer software and playstations . It is stocked with more than 10,000 brand new fiction and non-fiction books as well as more than 1,000 new DVDs, 600 CDs and 25 computers for public use.  One particularly clever feature is the use of Radio Frequency book tags which allows the reserving of books for clients’ arrival so they can collect and issue their books without the need to interact with staff.

Patton Fit-Out was appointed as the main contractor for the internal aspect of the project with the exterior envelop built as part of the centre.

The Patton Fit-Out team worked alongside architectural design practice FaulknerBrowns to develop the initial design concept and then with Quadrant Design to take the concepts to the next level.

Brendan Boyd, Director of Patton Fit-Out says: “The aspirations of the joint clients, Westfield and the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, were to challenge the preconceptions of a library and for it to be integral to the larger retail development.  The design in essence, had to appeal to shoppers as well as existing library users. The finished interior is really spectacular and creates a facility that is both impressive and unique.  We believe the success of this scheme demonstrates clearly our ability to take on even the most complex challenge and underlines our wide range of competencies across retail, leisure, office and commercial.

“Although we have won a number of major awards in the past few years, this is the first time we have been recognised by the AIS. Given their standing as one of the UK’s most respected trade associations, representing companies’ right across the full spectrum of interior contracting, this is an accolade that ranks with the best.”

Richard Robinson at Quadrant Design said: “The opportunity to work on such a high profile public project located within the largest city shopping centre in Europe was undertaken with excitement within the practice.

“We approached the detail development of the FaulknerBrown concept scheme and initial proposals with the view that we had to maintain the original design intent.  The detail was further developed and elements, such as the projecting aluminium shards at first floor level, the carcassing to the book shelving system and the intricate suspended ceiling, that could be realised within the programme and budget were developed in conjunction with specialist manufacturers and suppliers.

“To have been part of the team and to have won such an award is a great compliment to the entire delivery and design team.”

/ends.

Well what about outside of the house? Gardens are an often-overlooked area of home improvement yet proper landscaping not only creates a more pleasant living environment; it also adds real value to your property. If you’re thinking of selling, for example, your front garden is what will greet potential buyers and we all know you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

The benefit

Not only will you attract more potential buyers and get a quicker sale (not to mention being the envy of your neighbours) you’ll probably get a welcome boost to your asking price. By spending five per cent of the value of your home on landscaping you should recoup all your costs if you sell up and you might even make money.

If your landscaping is on the low end for the area bringing it up to par with your neighbours could increase the value of your property by as much as 15 per cent. And academic studies are proving the point. One university study found that consumers valued a landscaped home up to 11.3 per cent above its base price. Another consumer survey in Ireland found that hedges raised property value by 3.6 per cent, a landscaped kerb by 4 per cent and a landscaped patio by a staggering 12.4 per cent.

Where to start?

With the front of the home being the first point of contact for visitors and potential buyers, the order of the day is mowing, weeding, trimming shrubs and re-turfing if necessary. If you have a budget it is important to focus your landscaping around key areas that are going to be seen – such as the front door.

Acheson & Glover make things easy these days by offering a landscape design service through their Outside Room centres located across Northern Ireland. At the centres, you’ll also find beautiful paving and flags and garden walling to help stimulate your imagination.

Hot trends at the moment include stunning pathways created using concrete pavers winding from the street to the front door.  You can add real character to your scheme by making paths slightly curved or staggered or by adding paving circles, for example, to define an entranceway easily.

The backyard sanctuary

Once you’ve completed the landscaping at the front of your home, your next point of attack is the backyard “sanctuary”. More and more people want to create a peaceful haven to relax in. A patio at the rear of your property could be just what you need but choose the colours and finishes of the paving and flags carefully to blend in with their surroundings.

Bringing the indoors outside is also a great way to enhance the value of your living space. A brick barbeque can increase your usable space, providing a great way to entertain in the summer and show off your culinary skills!

Once you’ve come up with your design and given your garden the makeover it deserved, there’s only one thing left to do: sit back, relax and give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve just made what could turn out to be the best property investment decision you’ll ever make.

For more ideas log on to www.outside-room.com or visit any of Acheson & Glover’s Outside Rooms (locations on their website).