UK gardening firm confirms 30 new roles as part of expansion into Northern Ireland

UK-based external maintenance and biodiversity specialist Ground Control is creating new 30 roles in Northern Ireland as part of new expansion plans.

Founded in 1973, the company, which has an office in Belfast, specialises in driving environmentally sustainable solutions for the commercial and public sector markets.

The 30 new positions in Northern Ireland, where Ground Control has had a presence since 2017, comes as part of a wider Ireland-wide expansion where an additional 150 staff will be hired.

The company currently employs 1,100 staff across the UK and Ireland and has annual revenues of £195 million.

Ground Control delivers a range of services, including grounds maintenance, winter gritting, landscape construction, design, arboriculture, electric vehicle charging point installation to more than 50,000 commercial properties across the UK.

According to Ground Control’s country director for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, Declan O’Gorman: "Ground Control, a leader in external maintenance, energy, and biodiversity, is dedicated to enhancing the physical environment.

“The jobs announcement reflects our positive year-on-year growth in Northern Ireland over the past seven years. It also reflects the region’s ongoing commitment to sustainability, both in the public- and private-sector. As a result of this success, we are investing in our expansion of services delivering new jobs across all sectors.

“Our unique and agile business model involves close collaboration with local field-based companies across the six counties. In doing so, we seek to leverage our extensive expertise, scale, and experience to support our operations, enhance our overall sustainability expertise, and accelerate local business growth. To this end, we're excited to ramp up recruitment, and engage with local businesses, growing our regional footprint and empowering new talent on this exciting journey."

An opportune time to expand into Northern Ireland, Ground Control managing director, Jason Knights, added: “In a short space of time, we have captured considerable market share in Northern Ireland, and based on the first five months of the calendar year, we anticipate this market footprint will continue to grow, amongst new and existing customers, in the second half of the year.

“As we embark on this exciting new chapter for the business, we are excited to welcome new country lead, Declan O’Gorman to the team. We also look forward to continuing our collaboration with our Northern Ireland customers, supporting them in achieving their decarbonization, CO2 emissions reduction, and biodiversity goals."