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Jobs hope as firm lands £3m contract for landmark hotel
WOMBWELL company Billington Holdings has won a £3 million contract to work on a top London hotel.
The deal to provide 1,200 tonnes of steel for the five star Cafe Royal Project in Piccadilly may help to secure jobs at the struggling company, that recently introduced a shortened working week.
This move was to prevent further redundancies after 20 workers lost their jobs with the award winning firm.
But a spokeswoman for the company said it was unlikely, certainly in the short term, that more jobs would become available as a direct result of the new contract.
She said: "All construction companies are struggling at the current time and this is a much needed bit of positive news for Billington.
However, it does not mean they will be employing more staff on the back of it. The company is concentrating on keeping its current workforce in employment.
"Management do hope to change the four day working week back to full-time in the not too distant future. Discussions about this will take place this week. The management have a good relationship with staff and unions and are committed to restoring the five day week for everyone".
Billington's steel will be used to strengthen the historic grade two listed Cafe Royal building, during its transformation in to a hotel.
Once complete, it will house 160 bedrooms, a spa, a restaurant and 16,000 sq ft of shops, and will be open in time for the 2012 Olympics.
The project in its entirety is worth about 70 million.
Mike Fewster, chief operations officer at Billington Holdings, said: "Billington remains focused on customer service and we are delighted to have won the contract for the redevelopment of the Cafe Royal. r expertise in the sector is second to none, allowing us to be put forward for work, despite difficult market conditions."
Preliminary surveying is already underway for the new contract, with Mace Group as the construction manager.
Billington reported very good tax profits for the first six months of last year, but blamed an "horrendous" time affecting the industry for the 10 voluntary and 10 compulsory redundancies that ensued at the start of this year.
The company is also seeking to extend its Wombwell operation on to land behind their Barnsley Road base, that Barnsley Council has agreed to sell on.
Last year, Billington Structures won a multi-million pound contract for supply steel frameworks for schools in phase one of the Building Schools for the Future project in Barnsley.
And they hope to secure further work linked to the next phase of that project.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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