A North Wales company that’s revolutionising the construction industry is planning to create 75 new jobs after landing its biggest ever single contract - worth £1.5 million.
Monolith has developed non-combustible, rapid-fit brick slips which significantly speed up the construction process and are now being used to clad a trio of high-end apartment blocks in Salford.
The site of the prestigious development is right alongside the gateway to Regent Road into Manchester – with 90 per cent of the apartments having been sold off-plan already.
According to Monolith, the BrickPlus: Pro system, which was developed in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster, has already been adopted by a number construction firms and property developers across the UK.
That deal is one of a potential £30m contract pipeline over the next two years.
It has seen owner Stephen Waring - the man behind GreenThumb - decide to open a second production facility in Denbighshire as they are outgrowing their existing site in Denbigh, where 20 staff work.
They aim to create 75 jobs at the new site to meet the demand for BrickPlus.
Under the system the panels of 12 lightweight brick slips are fused into a mesh and according to Monolith they can replicate the look of any existing bricks or stone façades – or even create new ones.
The system can be applied to existing properties or used in the construction of new buildings.
After extensive testing, the product was given an A1 fire rating and was classified as 100 per cent non-combustible.
Mr Waring, who lives on the outskirts of Holywell, said: “Class A fire retardants have a flame spread rating of between zero and 25 meaning which means this system is effective against severe fire exposure.
“This product helps alleviate understandable concerns about safety following the Grenfell Tower disaster.
“It provides the peace of mind for developers, specifiers and of the course the public are looking for and that certainly seems to be the case with the increase in demand for this product.”
Construction is underway in Salford and different brick slips are being used on each of the three buildings.
Monolith sales and marketing manager Edd Wilson said: “The steel frame of one of the blocks is already up and they’re flying in terms of sales.
“The development of 525 apartments is in a great spot just as you’re driving on Regent Road on the entrance to Manchester. It’s a prestigious scheme in a prime location.
“In all they are using 20,000 square meters of our brick slips which means it’s the biggest single project in our history.
“The potential is huge. We’re now getting really serious enquiries from some big construction companies and we’re getting them daily at the moment, thanks to the industry presence being grown alongside Architectural Facades.
“Our production methods are easy to scale up very quickly so we can increase our output to meet the increasing demand.”
