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Building Industry Focus - An Interview with QB Contracts

While some sectors are still struggling from the impact of COVID-19, the construction industry continues its recovery, with a significant boost from housebuilding (ONS.gov.uk, 5 Nov 2020). Investing in companies within the building sector seems an interesting option in these uncertain times.

Our newest borrower is QB Contracts, a recognised and certified groundworks specialist, with experience delivering a wide range of major high quality building and civil engineering projects in both the UK and Ireland.

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QB Contracts helps councils, property developers, building and engineering contractors as well as private landowners to improve their infrastructure in terms of drainage, roads, kerbs and footpaths, fencing, excavation, construction of retaining walls, foundations and more.

We talked with the Director of QB Contracts Ltd, Peter Quinn, to find out more about the company and industry sector:

Peter, could you tell us why rebuildingsociety.com lenders should consider investing in construction and civil engineering companies?

Groundworks will always be needed to keep the economy going; new schools, hospitals, social housing, etc. 

What makes QB Contracts Ltd different to other civil engineering companies?

We are young team, full of energy, and we have worked hard to get to where we are. We have the drive behind us to succeed.

What are the accreditations to look for when hiring a company to carry out groundworks and civil engineering services?

ISO 9001 (Quality Management) & ISO 14001 (Environmental Management), and also Safe-T-Cert for companies in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Accreditation for these is a difficult process, and it takes a lot of work to remain accredited, and with good grade under Safe-T-Cert, as QB Contracts has done since 2011. The ISO 14001 accreditation shows how hard we work as a company to protect the environment.

It's great that you have maintained your environmental accreditations for so long. When you carry out excavation and groundwork, are earthworks materials re-used, and if so, how?

They are reused within the same site as much as possible to refill or regrade (build the area up to height).

In addition to groundworks, one of your other services is plant hire. What steps do you take to ensure these are not stolen; theft of plant is quite common nowadays.

All our machines are fitted with trackers and every site they are put on is also fitted with a security alert so we are notified of intruders after working hours.

What is the current demand for groundworks and your other civil engineering services in Northern Ireland and Ireland?

Northern Ireland is strong but Ireland is where we have been pushing to get into over the last year because this is where the main work is at the moment; it's really opened up in Ireland for our sector.

How do you think Brexit will affect your company and your industry?

We don’t think it will have a major impact on us; the only issue we can foresee is increased fuel costs, and possibly a shortage of fuel, and our attitude is that the government needs to work with the people to keep the economy going so we honestly think it's not going to be to major problem.

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions Peter, and best of luck with your fundraising campaign.


Read more about QB Contracts and visit their current application for funding.

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