Kavco (Modular Systems) Limited was incorporated in 1985 and the present owner and Managing Director, Peter Hilborn, joined the Company in 1995. Six years later, Peter carried out a management buy-out and this year celebrates 10 years in charge.
Peter explains, “I joined the Company because I saw the potential for this type of service in London and the south-east and my decision has been justified by the way that things have gone. The Company has now reached a turnover of £800,000 per year and while we employ a small number of staff, we do have a good network of established sub-contractors across all trades that we have used regularly over many years.”
The Company will tackle any type of project from maintenance work through to medium-sized fit-out projects, in jobs worth anything from £200 to £650,000. The average job size is £10,000 to £100,000.
As the result of work done for a large hotel group headquarter building in Windsor for Amec, Kavco were asked to be involved with a large project at Mercedes Benz World at Brooklands.
The majority of work done to date has been in the City of London and in the West End. Peter says, “In the current economic climate, many customers are looking what can be done with their current office space. This has resulted in Kavco doing more refurbishment and office alteration work. We do not do any design, other than constructional design”.
One interesting project was undertaken for a major charity – the Jewish National Fund (JNF) – in North London. The three-storey office building had previously been used for recording studios and therefore involved a considerable amount of demolition before building work was able to begin. This included stripping the building right back to the bare shell, the floor finish was taken up and ceilings taken out. New suspended ceilings were installed, together with relocatable partitions to allow for future alterations.
The new office environment is a combination of open plan areas with offices for the charity’s executive officers. New kitchens, refurbished bathrooms, and a fresh new reception area completed the project, which was delivered on budget and on time to the delight of our clients.
Another interesting project was carried out for Eaton Vance in the Old Stock Exchange Building in Old Broad Street. The building had
CAT A floors and was a bare shell that had been refurbished. Kavco was employed as a sub-contractor for the partitions and joinery. This was high quality fit-out project worth £110,000 to Kavco.
Peter said “I was heavily involved with the joinery because I am an apprentice-trained cabinet maker by trade. We did all of the partitions – both solid and glazed. In the meeting room, the walls were lined with figured Anigre veneered wood panels complete with integrated doorsets. The veneer was specified by the Client’s architects who were based in Boston, USA and all of the veneer had to be exactly matched.”
The building had some odd-shaped columns that had to be squared up in order to take desking modules with cupboards built in the alcoves. These had very tight tolerances and the resulting structures had to be totally uniform throughout the building. Peter says, “The end result was very impressive and I am very proud of what we achieved.”
For further information please telephone 0844 873 3124 or visit www.kavco.com
