Managing Director's Column - Looking to 2021

At some point in every meeting at the moment I am asked “How are things looking for the construction sector over the next six months?”  I wish there was an easy answer but as new COVID rules and restrictions are imposed this week we are all trying to figure out how the rest of this year and the start of 2021 will play out.    

The disruptions to our industry this year have obviously cost many companies dearly.  Fortunately we were in good shape going into lockdown with a healthy client base and a good order book which has seen us through these difficult months.

However, it hasn’t been without its challenges.  Over the summer, as travel restrictions were lifted, we worked really hard to make sure our employees with families overseas had the chance to return home to see them, but this put pressure on our teams here.  There’s also no question the industry is still feeling the effects of lags across the European supply chain which is causing some delays on materials which is frustrating.

But with all our employees back from Europe we’re now up to full strength and we’ve even started to take on new labour for the first time this year.  In many ways, despite the news this week about increased restrictions on movement, we are more optimistic about the future than we have been since the start of this pandemic. 

In the last few weeks we have had a huge surge in enquiries for domestic renovation projects.  Working from home is now a permanent feature of many people’s lives and many of our clients are wanting to adapt their homes to make that possible.  And just last week we saw a big increase in tenders for commercial development projects.

There’s no question the situation is fragile and another complete lockdown would have a detrimental effect on the construction industry across the board.  But we remain positive, are now working at full capacity and have a very healthy orderbook carrying us well into the new year.