Grants to ride prefab wave to £100m turnover

Stonework specialist Grants is aiming to capitalise on a rush by clients to use more prefabricated products by investing in its manufacturing operations.

The London-based firm, which has production operations from Lincolnshire to Scotland, turned over £40m in 2016 and is targeting hitting £100m turnover by 2025.

It has been adding to its core stone supply business in recent years by diversifying into stone quarrying, contracting, processing and precast production to meet client demand.

Lee O’Connor, owner of Grants Group, said domestic suppliers such as his could stand to benefit from Brexit, as clients seek to buy “materials from the UK rather than from Europe due to currency fluctuations”.

He added: “We are investing at a time when others are looking to batten down the hatches… I feel relatively positive in terms of [UK] manufacturing.”

Last June the firm bought sandstone and limestone quarrying business Blockstone and the firm is currently drawing up plans to expand its precast products business Grants Precast.

Grants Precast produces architectural, brick and stone-faced precast concrete cladding panels, and the business plans to move into window manufacturing within 18 months so that it can supply windows as part of these factory-built panels. Brick supply has also been identified as a potential area for expansion.

Grants and its subsidiary Cadeby Stone (quarry pictured top right) have supplied stonework to major projects including Bloomberg’s new European HQ, the Shard, Heathrow Terminal 2, and the two Westfield shopping centres in London.