AGM Group, the Port Glasgow-based office and shop fit-out specialist, has signalled its hope that confidence is returning to the commercial property market after winning a £400,000 contract in Glasgow.
The company has been asked by contract administrator Capita Symonds to refurbish a former Job Centre Plus on Argyle Street for NHS Lanarkshire's new Salus operation, which has leased the building to carry out benefits assessments for the Department of Work and Pensions. Salus also has a site in Edinburgh.
AGM has taken on 10 new staff – a site manager, administrator and eight joiners – to carry out the work, with the company also calling on the services of a team of Glasgow and Inverclyde-based sub-contractors.
Work started two weeks ago and is expected to be completed over a five to six-week period.
It will see the existing premises completely stripped out and refurbished. Building services including air conditioning, ventilation, electrical systems and plumbing will be adapted, and new partitions with a high acoustic rating are being installed to maximise privacy in each of the rooms.
The project will also involve plastering and painting, the addition of new flooring, ceilings and lighting, and creating a new reception area and canteen facilities.
AGM founder Andrew Meek said the site manager and administrator would be retained full-time in the long-term as the company's order book gets increasingly busy.
The business, which was founded in 2004 and includes a reactive maintenance division, eMaintain, has just won a contract to install a new roof and cladding at a Halfords store in Ayr.
Other jobs in the pipeline include office alterations for software company Adobe in Edinburgh, and work on five Superdrug stores around Scotland. Talks are ongoing over potential work with Clydesdale Bank and AGM is also looking at three local authority projects that are currently out to tender.
Mr Meek expressed his hope that confidence was being restored in the commercial property market amid evidence more projects are being signed off this year compared with 2012.
"I hope the market is changing and people are getting funding to go ahead with projects [and] banks are supporting them. You can never know conclusively that is happening, but I think it might have a part to play in it.
"I also think property values are low and commercial landlords are seeing bargains and deciding they can acquire and develop [properties]. The market has reached a point where they can purchase at that price and do something with them."
Beyond benefiting from broader market trends, Mr Meek suggested his company was seeing the rewards from continuing to market the business throughout the recession. It has taken steps to improve how it communicates via newsletters and its website, and has been nominated for two awards from its local chamber of commerce.
Mr Meek added: "I think quite a few companies have cut their spend on marketing in the difficult times, but we have done the opposite. We are going to make sure our message is out there so that when things do pick up we are at the top of the list."
The company has also invested heavily in technology. In excess of £20,000 was spent last year on an online system for eMaintain, which allows clients to log jobs and view "before and after" images taken by engineers on smartphones to show them the work that has been done.
eMaintain has recently won contracts with James Watt College and Sutherland's Bar in Port Glasgow.
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