Member Article

Growing Leeds-based roofing group celebrates 20 years in business

Everlast, a Leeds-based roofing and cladding group that provides specialist services across the construction, property and rail sectors, is celebrating 20 years in business. The last two decades have seen the company grow from a small roofing provider to become a £28m turnover, multi-discipline firm employing more than 80 people.

Founded by chief executive Terry Deighton in 2000, in the last 12 months the firm has created 20 new jobs, with further hires planned for 2020. With divisions including roofing and cladding, rail infrastructure works, scaffolding, facilities management and specialist surveys, Everlast carried out more than 1,500 projects ranging from £500 to £3m across the UK and Europe in 2019. The firm has worked on some iconic schemes including the £600,000 re-roofing of Sheffield’s Park Hill flats and a £400,000 project to install a new roof for the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds.

Everlast has also delivered waterproofing projects for the Manchester Arndale Centre and York University, as well as replacing the roof covering at one of the country’s busiest railway stations, London Victoria.

Jason Cross, managing director of the firm’s rail division said: “Delivering roofing works for London Victoria was one of our most challenging projects so far. Not only is it a listed building in the heart of London but it had to remain fully operational for the duration of the project, which involved fitting steel roofing to the station’s grade II-listed vaulted roofs. We’re really proud of the skill, dedication and flexibility of our management team, supervisors and fixers who worked on the project from the start to its successful completion.”

Since the Grenfell fire tragedy of 2017, Everlast’s fire remediation team has also been contracted to work on growing numbers of major fire prevention projects, replacing cladding, glazing and façade systems to buildings and installing fire breaks and non-flammable insulation to upgrade safety.

The firm is currently carrying out £3.5m of refurbishment schemes for the Novotel hotels group at its Birmingham Airport and Greenwich sites, replacing aluminium composite cladding panels and fire stops to ensure the safety of both sites.

“Both hotels have remained open to guests while we carried out the fire prevention installation, and the Birmingham Novotel is right next to the airport which brings its own security and operational issues,” said project manager Richard Wattam. “However we have completed the Greenwich project with minimum disruption to the daily life of the hotel and Birmingham is on schedule to be completed in May.”

Everlast group managing director Michael Hunter, added: “The last two decades have seen the firm go from strength to strength as we have diversified into new areas such as schools and colleges, where we have carried out several re-roofing projects.

“Everlast are all about improving buildings, and using innovative solutions to make them safer and more comfortable places to live and work in. It’s a testament to our team of professional and dedicated staff that we continue to grow, with some exciting and high profile projects lined up for the year ahead.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Emma Kilmurray .