From second-hand classrooms to a £25million modular empire: Northern Ireland family-run construction firm celebrates 40 years

Forty years ago, Co. Londonderry entrepreneur Pat McVey left school to train as a welder, eventually starting a small business buying, selling, and refurbishing second-hand mobile buildings.

This month, the family run off-site construction business he founded, P McVey Building Systems, celebrates its 40th anniversary as a booming £25m turnover operation and a market leader in the UK and Irish construction sectors.

To toast the milestone, the McVey family and their workforce gathered on July 31 for a special anniversary celebration at Ballyscullion Park. The event marked four decades of resilience and rapid modernisation, coming on the heels of a massive 400% growth spurt over the past five years.

The company, now spearheaded by Pat’s sons Adrian and Mike, has built a formidable reputation across the UK and Ireland, completing over 2,500 projects. Their high-efficiency modular systems now serve critical infrastructure with 31% of current sales driving growth in the Republic of Ireland, 21% in England, and nearly half of total sale servicing Northern Ireland’s education, healthcare, and commercial sectors.

“We literally grew up alongside this business,” says Mike McVey, director, who remembers working with his father during school holidays.

“The method of construction has completely changed. We’ve gone from temporary structures to multi-million-pound permanent buildings. MMC (Modern Methods of Construction) look identical to traditional builds, but they are manufactured under controlled factory conditions and fully installed on-site within days, answering the acute shortage of traditional construction labour.”

This off-site manufacturing capability allows P McVey to directly answer the acute labour shortages and carbon reduction targets currently crippling traditional construction. By shifting up to 80% of the building process into their state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Creagh and Toome, the company minimises on-site disruption, slashes project timelines by half, and drastically reduces material waste.

Looking forward, the second-generation leadership team is focused on driving the next era of off-site excellence.

Following the strategic acquisition of Donnelly Cabins and recent major investments into dual-facility expansion, P McVey is uniquely positioned to scale its market share even further.

“The first 40 years are just the foundation,” added Adrian McVey, director.

“As we look toward the next decade, our corporate vision is fixed on pushing the boundaries of modular design for large-scale UK and Irish infrastructure, while staying loyal to the local workforce and deep community roots that built us.”