How Clarke is building a legacy of talent and purpose

Ballymena firm Clarke Group’s portfolio of projects spans the UK and Ireland, but at the heart of the façade specialist’s business is its team.

For a business that was born initially in the 1980s with a van and a few tools, the evolution of Clarke Group to be one of the top façade specialists in Ireland and the UK makes it completely unrecognisable from those humble origins today.

Operating from a state-of-the-art factory in Ballymena, Clarke is at the spearhead of making buildings safe and elegant and in all cases sustainable by breathing new life into existing structures.

From 30-plus storey mixed use projects to commercial, residential and property developments, the business is playing a leading role in reviving existing structures using innovative new methods that also guarantee minimal disruption. Examples of the firm’s recent works include the rejuvenation of London’s Kensington Hotel, Unilever’s Eden Campus headquarters, as well Belfast’s Merchant Square.

The business works with blue-chip construction industry clients, including Morgan Sindall, John Sisk, Berkeley Group and Balfour Beatty, to name a few.

Quality over quantity

As CEO of Clarke Group Eugene Clarke explains the origins of the business extend back to the 1980s when his father Michael and his brother were doing plastering and screening jobs. “They came to a realisation that there was an opportunity to go from doing jobs to actually managing the contracts. There was a good work ethic there, they had plenty of drive and were fairly entrepreneurial.”

Originally a plastering and flooring business, in 1996 Eugene’s father Michael Clarke the decided to consolidate and specialise in innovative design-led façade projects, providing end-to-end services from pre-construction to project handover.

The company has cultivated a strong reputation for producing a high quality, sustainable product and cutting-edge designs for high-rise commercial and residential buildings, providing bespoke offsite architectural services, rain-screen cladding, external envelope, unitised façade, glazing and lightweight steel framing.

In many ways today the business is at the cutting-edge of delivering carbon net-zero buildings through full end-to-end design, off-site fabrication and installation.

As COO Padraig McKenna puts it: “Why build a new building when you can repurpose an old building by putting a new façade on it and refitting out the internals and modernising it basically?”

Employing 150 people, Eugene Clarke says the decision by his father to spearhead the evolution of the business from low-end contract work to high-end projects was fundamental.

“He saw the opportunity for a value shift for the business.”

Eugene explains he always had an interest in the business and would work on sites during school and college holidays. After leaving university he worked in property development before returning the fold of the family business. “My dad saw another opportunity to value-shift the business for higher quality opportunities. We saw an opportunity to take greater control of projects by manufacturing in our own environment and through design adding more value to the client earlier on. It was evolutionary because we were no longer a commodity, we were a full partner on these projects.”

The decision to pivot towards design and manufacture in the early 2010s acted as a catalyst for the business winning more contracts in the UK, including large developments near Heathrow and NHS hospital contracts that put the firm firmly on the map.

“It wasn’t an easy adjustment as we had to migrate the business carefully in this direction. We were an established business that was essentially becoming a start-up.”

The building blocks of growth were solidified through the creation of a design team, the opening of its current factory in what was an old shirt factory on a six-acre site they had acquired and by putting their stamp on it with a state-of-the-art office.

The design team includes structural engineers, thermal engineers and acoustic engineers and much of the manufacturing on-site means the final construction on client’s premises is less people-intensive or disruptive than in the past.

Purpose and vision

Eugene Clarke, CEO, Clarke Group

Eugene says that in 2010 the business would have had a turnover of £10m. Today revenues are north of £50m.

“It’s been a massive growth journey for us. Back then we would have been serving small, regional contractors. Today, we are working with top-of-the-line operators like Mace and Berkeley Homes, for example.”

Fostering innovation and empowering people are core to the values-driven approach of Clarke Group. Eugene said that bringing colleagues and clients on this journey, impressing its purpose and vision is crucial. “We’re a construction business but you can see from our branding that we’re a little bit different. We like to say we’re a bit more Maradona than Tesco.”

Instead of just sticking to plans and designs set down by architects, Eugene says the business has an ethos of challenging those plans to get the best results and bring new ideas to the table. “Crucially, clients are interested in how much you care. That’s why we emphasise purpose and what’s important to us a business is the difference we make in peoples’ lives.

“Within our business we want to create a legacy of purpose and talent that has come from here in Ballymena but will have travelled the world in terms of knowledge and expertise.

“What excites us as a business is building that legacy. What will this look like in 10 years? We hope that we will have a reputation as a household name and experts in digitally advanced, carbon-reduced façade solutions. As a business, we design cladding, we make façades and we have them on buildings and we are in the midst of becoming a multi-disciplinary company. We’re looking at fire safety consultancy, creating a maintenance division and we may even start a business school within the business too.”

At the heart of all of this is sustainability, the use of more sustainable methods and materials but crucially breathing life into old buildings that still have something to contribute.

“Even the building we are headquartered in is an example of what you can do. We looked at the building and found so much that we could retain and repurpose. Similarly, the Kensington Hotel in London was earmarked for destruction but all the people in the area loved the building and we were able to help repurpose it.

“We gain enormous satisfaction from such jobs – taking something that was considered redundant and cast aside by society and looking at it differently to see the value and purpose of these beautiful buildings and preserving them for future generations.”

Just like how Clarke Group has transformed and breathed life into existing structures, the key to it has been its banking partner Bank of Ireland seeing their purpose and potential and backing the company.

“We’ve been with Bank of Ireland for 35 years and they’ve stuck with us through the tough times and the good,” Eugene says.

“Bank of Ireland has been part of the story from probably day one. There’s a big relationship piece there and they trust us. So much so that they’re an extension of the Clarke team. In 2006 we got involved in properly development and enjoyed some early success but then the credit crunch hit. We had to a lot of things to keep afloat and the big lesson to come away from all of that is to stick to your core competencies.”

Eugene Clarke says the business is energised by the passion and commitment of its team. “I think the unique selling point of Clarke is the team. It’s something to behold when you see those guys in a room really coming up with brilliant ideas and seeing what’s possible.”

As founder Michael Clarke puts it: “There’s so much more success to be got. It’s just so exciting. There really are so many opportunities out there.”

• Bank of Ireland is welcoming new customers every day – funding investments, working capital and expansions across multiple sectors. To learn more, click here

• For support in challenging times, click here

• Listen to the ThinkBusiness Podcast for business insights and inspiration. All episodes are here. You can also listen to the Podcast on:

• Spotify

• SoundCloud

• Apple