Modular housing firm to take on 500 new staff

Modular housebuilder Ilke Homes is to take on 500 more staff as it opens up a new shift at its off-site housing factory near Knaresborough in North Yorkshire.

The investment comes after the firm secured a £60m cash injection over the summer from existing funders Homes England, TDR and Sun Capital, plus housing association Guinness, which valued the manufacturer at £200m.

A spokesperson for the business said most of the 500 new recruits will be working on the factory floor putting the finishing touches to homes once they roll off the production line.

A new shift at the firm’s factory will double its production capacity, allowing the factory to stay open from 6am-10pm, five days a week.

Dave Sheridan, executive chairman at Ilke Homes, said the recruitment drive was in response to the government’s aim to boost high-skilled green jobs.

Recruitment firm Michael Page has been charged with finding the new staff at a time of record vacancies.

The recruiter said jobs available included manufacturing, production operatives, supervisors and office and business support functions, with a combination of entry level and more specialist roles.

The scaling-up is happening despite widening losses in the last year of published accounts, with the business in the summer reporting a £34.6m pre-tax loss for the year to March 2020.

Last week Ilke announced the first fruits of its £100m 2019 deal with housing association giant Places for People, with an order for 472 homes across two schemes in Exeter and Burgess Hill, Sussex.

The manufacturer has an ambition to build 10,000 homes over the next five years.