With an initial project pipeline of £12.7 million already secured, WorkSpace will offer clients a range of services spanning build, fit-out, facilities management, bespoke joinery, and commercial furniture under one brand.

Richard Cheevers, McLaughlin & Harvey director, said: “The company has built a strong reputation for delivering large scale construction and civil engineering schemes over many years, and recently the directors felt there was a need to create a dedicated division for projects outside the scope and scale of those traditionally associated with McLaughlin & Harvey.

“WorkSpace provides a specialist option for what might be regarded as ‘smaller’ projects with a market-leading fit-out capability at its core, but also encompassing build, bespoke joinery, commercial furniture and hard facilities management services. We are delighted to have secured an order book of £12.7m across fit-out, build and facilities management which is a testament to the hard work of our team and the appetite for our offering.

“McLaughlin & Harvey has a long-standing heritage stretching back to 1853 with some of the top talent in the industry. We believe WorkSpace can benefit from these undoubted assets to deliver a proposition that combines all of McLaughlin & Harvey’s traditional strengths with the freshness, energy and nimbleness of what effectively is a new enterprise aimed at enabling the company to deliver a full range of right-fit projects of all sizes.”

It is expected the new division will create up to 20 new full-time permanent posts in year one, as well as opening up new opportunities for the company’s trusted supply chain.

Richard Carron, who has been recruited as WorkSpace head of business development, said: “Whilst our focus will be as a main contractor delivering build and fit-out projects, we believe there is a lot of potential for us to provide high quality integrated packages that also include bespoke joinery, commercial furniture, and aftercare. Our team has extensive experience delivering projects for prestige brands such as M&S, ITV News, NatWest and Charles Hurst Aston Martin and Bentley. We plan to extend our reach further in other key areas such as commercial, hospitality, leisure, education, heritage, and visitor centres.”

Referring to the thinking behind the WorkSpace name, Richard Carron added: “We wanted a name that would reflect our ability to work in any space; to bring great design concepts to life – whether it’s building, stripping-out, fitting-out, or providing after care.”

WorkSpace and McLaughlin & Harvey recently completed a major project at Jewish Care in Stanmore. A unique interior feature of the project was the bespoke wall and ceiling panelling. Each panel manufactured in-house had a unique olive tree design which was CNC engraved and finished with a painted gold leaf. The division has also recently handed over an interior fit-out project at the highly acclaimed Seamus Heaney Homeplace Visitor Centre in Bellaghy, Northern Ireland.

Its order book includes work on ITV’s Parliamentary Studios at Millbank, London; ongoing facilities management with M&S throughout the UK; a major FF&E project at a leading English university and a range of other framework education schemes within Ireland and Scotland.