By Ian McConnell

A SCOTTISH fit-out and construction company engaged in creating a 1930s-style cocktail bar and restaurant in Glasgow’s landmark Art Deco Beresford building is increasing its workforce through a six-figure investment in a new manufactured joinery workshop.

Pacific Building, based at Hillington on the outskirts of Glasgow, is taking on at least six new staff on the back of its creation of the workshop at its headquarters. The six new recruits will take the company’s total number of staff to 50.

A spokesman for Pacific Building said one joinery employee had been taken on already, with the “other five to follow very soon”.

Pacific Building, which became an employee-owned business in January 2019, said current live projects which would benefit from the new workshop included the Marine Hotel and the Renaissance Club in North Berwick and the Belvidere Bowling Club in Glasgow’s east end, as well as the new Beresford Lounge in Glasgow.

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The workshop will cover an area three times the size of the facility the company currently uses as its main base at Hillington.

Pacific Building said its staff would manufacture “bespoke pieces to meet increasing demand from the hospitality, retail and travel sectors”.

It added: “Specifically, they will produce fixtures and fittings and other items associated with café furniture, waiting stations, bar tops, shelving, panelling, cabinetry, wall coverings, screens, storage, reception desks, covings and mouldings.”

The company noted, as a main contractor, it would previously have had to source manufactured joinery items from external suppliers and often engage a third party to install them. This meant it had “limited control over quality, which may only have become apparent at the time of delivery to site”.

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Managing director Gerard McMahon said: “This significant investment in our workshop will allow us to provide a minimum of six additional jobs, increase capacity and deliver bespoke joinery solutions for our growing client base. As an employee-owned business, investing in our people and services is central to our culture and values.”

He added: “The workshop allows Pacific Building to provide added value to our clients via a single point of contact, through continuity from design to installation and via innovation throughout the process.”

Pacific Building’s move into employee ownership was initiated by previous managing director Brian Gallacher, who is now its chairman.