FIT FOR THE FUTURE

Antrim-based fit-out firm Mivan recently announced a record order intake of £100m which will see it boost revenue by almost 300 per cent this year. CEO John Cunningham tells Emma Deighan from Ambition Magazine why the firm is in demand and the future of that ascent.

“You will be hard-pressed to find a fit-out contractor with the global portfolio of Mivan. Our people — their skill sets and the knowledge we possess and the loyalty of our staff — there is a limited number of our competitors that offer that and the full turnkey package we do, along with the quality product we deliver,” John Cunningham, CEO of Mivan begins.

His words are brought to life by the striking images of the company’s timeline of work; from the ornate interior of The Bulgari Hotel and Residences in London to the luxurious transformation of all 10 Grand Hibernian carriages and the excruciatingly charming finish of One Hyde Park residential development in the heart of Knightsbridge.

They’re all scenes of interior utopia.

But that’s the USP of the firm, it is a provider of prime and super prime fit-outs with a portfolio that spans the world on land and sea. Its client portfolio is a list of who’s who at the top of the hospitality and residential food chain.

And its fit outs illustrate joinery at its finest with luxe materials that many can only dream of even imitating.

The company’s main area of work is in the hospitality and residential sectors, with offices and retail also featuring. Historically it has links with museums, which is an area it would like to return to. Meanwhile, its cruise line and yacht fit-out clients are starting to return.

Business, John says, is 70 per cent land-based and 30 per cent sea-based.

“Super prime hotels and super prime residential developments are the bulk of our work, and our sector diversification is a strategic focus within the business where we stress the importance of not having all our eggs in one basket,” he continues.

“That was evident when the pandemic hit. The marine and super yacht division was heavily impacted but thankfully we had the resilience of our land sector projects to maintain revenue for the business. Although super prime hotels and super prime residential developments are currently the sectors demanding our services most, we recognise markets will change and with a portfolio of delivering within marine, super yachts, offices, sports stadiums and museums we are well placed to move with the market.”

John says the company’s recent strong performance can be attributed to such strategies and says turnover for 2023 is now set to be over £70m.

The business is also on target with that strategic growth plan to increase turnover to £100m by 2025 while 100 new jobs have recently been announced to support its continued expansion and the next phase of a multi-million-pound capital investment programme is also underway.

John adds: “Recruitment has been ongoing since September 2022 and has increased further in the last month. A number of key London positions were filled but we still have more to fill. Recruitment for the factory has been steady and we are confident in filling all roles required by April 2023.”

That process won’t be without resistance from the talent deficit facing all sectors, with technical roles including project management and commercial management a more notable challenge to fill.

John adheres to the Chinese proverb ‘The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now’, when approaching the subject of skill shortages.

“We had a recruitment open day and that has helped us get a lot of people through the door and we need to go further. We have a core number of joiners in the factory and the open day did help. This skills shortage that was present in almost every industry pre-Covid is still a threat to organisational growth everywhere and having a strong talent pipeline is more crucial than ever but recruiting, it’s not about the number of people we can attract; it’s about the quality of the candidates."

He says the firm will ramp up its strategy to ensure a healthy pipeline of workers. This includes: “Attracting the ‘right’ talent, reviewing our application process, building our construction talent pipeline and investing in our people by promoting and training within. An apprentice scheme, navigate programme and attractive packages, will also support this.”

There will be 300 Mivan employees at the end of the recruitment process. Geographically the majority of Mivan’s high-end projects are London-based, but not confined to.

“As a business, we have a track history of working on a global stage. Geographic location is not an obstacle to the business. We are strategic in targeting projects and clients that suit our offering. Although we envisage London will be our main revenue stream, we are currently targeting projects in the north of England and Scotland as well as the Middle East,” John adds.

It would also like to have a more prominent presence in Northern Ireland’s interior landscape. It currently has one live project here with another due to commence. “We want to be doing more in Northern Ireland and Ireland and we are currently undertaking a project in the heart of Belfast city centre as principal contractor for the Pearl Assurance Building, plus a significant residential development on a piece of prime land in Newry.”

The Pearl Assurance job is a multi-million-pound contract scheduled for completion this summer. Mivan will be responsible for the restoration of the historic façade, the creation of ground-floor retail units, open-plan offices, a roof terrace and a rear extension, as well as internal finishes and specialist joinery.

Its other live work this year includes a high-specification fit-out project worth in excess of £17m for Multiplex for One Nine Elms and a new five-star hotel in London, due for completion by the end of 2023. There are also fit-out projects worth more than £8m for Prime Development and Sir Robert McAlpine for the Peninsula Hotel on Grosvenor Place in London for bespoke joinery for front-of-house areas while a multimillion-pound contract for a five-star hotel in Mayfair also features.

Exclusive private residencies at Chelsea Barracks will also be completed at the end of 2023 by Mivan.

Off-land new projects include a £2.5m interior fit-out of a 34-metre super yacht at Pendennis Shipyard in Falmouth.

Looking ahead John anticipates the industry to favour smarter more sustainable solutions. He explains: “Sustainability is mentioned at a lot of tenders. We can trace all the timber we use; we’ve got that within our business here. In relation to trends, there is a lot of demand for high-end timber, timber veneers, stone and marble in the prime and super-prime sectors.

"Modularisation, which we do in the factory, click and play, that type of thing will become more common,” he says.

“We have invested heavily in digital construction technology and 3D modelling to enhance client engagement and collaboration in the design process, streamline manufacturing, and facilitate site installation.”

At its 110,000 sq ft factory in Antrim, Mivan has recently invested £1m, which includes the addition of a new online dryer for its automatic spraying equipment and a six-metre five-axis CNC machine, which will be installed by Spring 2023 to further improve capacity and efficiency.

"Not everyone can we do can do and that’s part of our reputation. The market isn’t full of people like ourselves and there is no doubt we are targeted by contractors, I’m not saying we’re the only ones, but we’re certainly a Northern Ireland-based company that is very much sought after.”