A HIGHLAND joinery business has purchased and refurbished what was a popular food stop near Inverness to create its new head office, having secured a £255,000 funding package from Royal Bank of Scotland.
IBI Joiners, owned by Brian Innes and founded in 2004, is moving its headquarters to the former Highland Food Stop site from Culloden as it aims for further growth, targeting significant construction projects.
The domestic and commercial joinery business has increased its turnover in each of the past four years. It achieved turnover of £4.9 million in 2019. IBI predicts 2020 turnover will “match or exceed this despite uncertainty at the start of the year due to Covid-19”.
Mr Innes said: “We’re really proud to relocate to a site with high footfall as we grow our business offering and start to expand into larger and more ambitious construction projects.”
The firm, which operates across the Highlands and Islands and Moray and was incorporated in 2010, employs 46 staff. Everyone, apart from founder and managing director Mr Innes, was placed on furlough amid the coronavirus pandemic. All staff have now returned to work and no redundancies were made.
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IBI noted it had been verbally appointed as lead contractor for a significant regeneration project in Inverness city centre involving restoration of listed buildings in Union Street and Baron Taylor’s Street to create 53 residential and six commercial units. This will be IBI’s largest project to date. IBI is also principal contractor for the 99 Church Street refurbishment project in Inverness, which will see a vacant building converted into 10 flats and a ground-floor retail unit. This development is being led by Ark Estates, and IBI is now on site.
The 5,014 sq ft premises on the former food-stop site, on the A96 between Nairn and Inverness, comprise three units, one of which is now IBI’s head office. The other two units are also being refurbished and will shortly be made available for rent.
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