‘Northern Ireland attitude’ keeps fit-out firm afloat in economic storm

Between political uncertainty and Brexit, it is an unsettling time for many companies in Northern Ireland. But like many other business people in the North, Les McCracken, managing director of McCue Crafted Fit, believes you just have to “weather the storm,” whatever its origins.

McCue Crafted Fit is a commercial fit-out and specialist joinery company whose clients range from luxury hotels such as the Shangri-La to Smyths,one of the island’s best-known toy chains.

It is this attitude that has ensured McCue survived when it faced difficult times in the past, particularly when the recession delivered a hard knock in 2008. The firm, which has been in business more than 60 years, saw its order book in the Republic virtually vanish overnight during the downturn.

“We were doing 50 to 60 per cent of our business in the Republic of Ireland and the balance in Northern Ireland and GB market, but our turnover was hit overnight because of the recession and in the short term we found ourselves in a loss-making situation that we just had to deal with,” McCracken says.

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“We had to re-establish ourselves, which we did by aggressively targeting the GB market and reprioritising our business, and within two years we had started growing again.”

As well as operating across the hospitality and commercial property sectors, the firm also expanded into the marine sector, winning contracts such as a multimillion pound order from Cunard for part of its Queen Mary 2 fit-out.

Record turnover

This year, McCracken, who has spent three decades helping Carrickfergus-headquartered McCue become a market leader in the UK and Ireland, expects to see its turnover hit record levels.

He says the key to its recovery and its continuing success today is “our people”.

“I know a lot of companies like to talk about their workforce but in our case it is what makes the difference: our people are highly trained, they pride themselves on the job they do and that is why we deliver on our promises.

“You only have to look at the relationships that we have developed with our clients to see that they come back to work with us again and again and that, I firmly believe, is because of the Northern Ireland attitude,” McCracken adds.

He believes its commitment to reinvesting in its people and its facilities is also crucial. McCue operates from a 60,000sq ft (5,574sq m) head office and production facility in Carrickfergus where all of its bespoke joinery is manufactured.

“We’re only as good as our people – and our people all possess the Northern Ireland attitude of ‘Let’s get it done’.  For our workforce it is not just about doing a job – it is about doing it right first time, whether you are under pressure or not, and meeting the deadline on time,” McCracken says.

Although he says McCue is flourishing outside of Northern Ireland its roots are in the North and it would like to be doing more business on home soil.

Investment in hotels

It might just get the chance to do that, because, according to the government agency Tourism NI, there is going to be significant investment in hotels in Belfast over the next 18 months ,thanks to increases in tourism numbers.

New figures show Northern Ireland welcomed 4.6 million visitors in the 12 months to September 2016.

Robert Ditty, senior director, with the commercial property consultants CBRE says its latest research also suggests there is strong demand for hotel space.

“Belfast has seen much-needed hotel development schemes enter the pipeline in the last 12 months with over 3,800 rooms either on site, planning granted, planning submitted or in pre-planning,” he says.

More than 1,100 rooms are currently on site in the city, to include the following hotels: AC Hotel by Marriott, Grand Central Hotel, Hampton by Hilton, the Maldron Hotel, Ten Square and the Titanic Hotel Belfast. Interestingly, on top of new developments, a number of prominent hotels in the city are undergoing extensions and refurbishments to create a stronger offering, including Ten Square and the Fitzwilliam Hotel in Belfast city centre and the Malone Lodge in south Belfast.”

For companies such as McCue it could not have come at a better time.