EWG Business Update February 2025

Business Update March 2025

Preston Animate opens

What’s Inside: Willohaus tops out

Wrightcare update

Eric visits future apprentices at South Elmsall site

New webistes launched

Welcome

Welcome to our March Business Update Time has flown and we are fast approaching the end of our first trading quarter.

All our businesses are well underway delivering their business plan objectives and it’s fair to say that all our plans for this year are some of the best and most encouraging we have had as a Group for some time. Evidence of this, just from reading through this update, is the number of significant events and milestones achieved by our teams to date.

In Preston, we celebrated the opening of our Animate project, bringing together a number of leisure and food operators in a landmark building at the heart of the city centre. We were very fortunate to have Nick Park CBE, of Wallace and Gromit fame, to mark the opening and draw well deserved attention to a project we are extremely proud of and one which reflects huge determination and commitment of teams from both Maple Grove Developments and Construction.

In our Civils business, the team continued to make great progress on the Salford Rise project with piling works now underway. The £15m contract is one of the largest and high profile schemes secured by the team and further strengthens the Group’s relationship with our key client Muse Developments.

Alongside this, our evolving Wrightcare business continued to gather momentum with the aerial picture in this update showing how our first home in Clitheroe is really taking shape.

The opening is due in Autumn and there will be plenty more updates to follow as the care business itself continues to evolve in coming months. This will include areas such as the website, branding and the internal designs aimed at providing a facility which will deliver some of the best levels of care and support for elderly people in our region.

Just touching on websites, the last few weeks also saw the launch of the Group’s new website. This was somewhat overdue but it’s been worth the wait. It’s a great showcase for the business, all that it does and its wider culture and values.

An integral part of this is our strongly held belief in supporting young people as they enter the workplace. There was a great example of this in our Water business where Eric paid a visit to our South Elmsall site and met up with two of our work placement students. They will both move onto our Apprenticeship programme in September and we wish them every success as their careers develop.

Last, but certainly not least, our Applethwaite team commenced development on their next site, Heckenhurst, which is in Worsthorne. The site will deliver a 36 unit mix of high quality two and three-bedroom homes and will play a big part in securing our pipeline of projects both during 2025 and on into 2026. This year we are projecting to sell 84 units which is a great indicator of the continued growth of the business.

Away from the projects, I would also like to thank you for your engagement in selecting Charities of the Year for each of your businesses. This is the third time people across the Group have had the opportunity to nominate charities they feel are making an outstanding contribution to the lives of people in our region. Charities continue to suffer from economic challenges that impact both businesses and households and it’s very clear that donations made by the Charitable Trust will make a huge difference.

Thank you for all your continued support and hard work and I’m sure we can look forward together to what we hope will be another successful year.

Jeremy Hartley CEO Eric Wright Group

Thank you Jeremy

Business

Animate opens Maple Grove Developments joined client Preston City Council, Eric Wright Construction and special guests for the official opening of Animate Preston.

To mark the opening of the new entertainment and leisure destination, Nick Park CBE unveiled a statue of Feathers McGraw.

Andrew Dewhurst, Director, said “Successfully delivering Animate and attracting a great line-up of leisure operators to the scheme is a fantastic achievement and a career highlight for the team here at Maple Grove Developments and Eric Wright Construction.

"The working relationship we have with Preston City Council has been extremely positive. I would like to thank all those involved who have pulled together to make Animate a reality, creating a place where the people of Preston and visitors from far and wide can come and enjoy themselves with their family and friends, now and in the years to come.” Read our story here.

Mary Parker House sale completes The fully let, high specification, 165 bed purpose built student accommodation is a short walk from Plymouth University, and is on track for full occupancy again in 2025/26.

The sale of Maple Grove Residential to Avignon/Veld Capital, a leading assetbacked focused private investment firm completed on 28 January 2025 for £10.4m.

Animate official opening

Lancashire Central development update The Maple Grove team recently hosted a breakfast launch for Lancashire Central, inviting the North West industrial and logistics agents to hear more about our 1.7m sq ft highquality commercial space. It was a hugely successful event with a fantastic turnout, with thanks to the CBRE team for hosting and we’re excited for the upcoming discussions with occupiers and funders.

As part of the proposed development, Maple Grove and Lancashire County Council, have completed a residential land sale to Rowland.

The sale represents the first phase of development at Lancashire Central. James Scott, Director, commented: “The sale of the residential land to Rowland represents a major milestone for the wider Lancashire Central project and provides the catalyst for both significant further development and associated infrastructure works. It’s an exciting period of time for the project for which we are planning to be on site later this year”. Read more about the land sale here.

Business

Willohaus tops out

Contract wins:

Our Construction team have reached the highest point of the £22m Passivhaus residential development for valued clients English Cities Fund and Salix Homes.

Construction are working with established client, Manchester Life on their new project Phoenix Ironworks.

The scheme will deliver 100 high-quality, affordable one and twobedroomed Passivhaus homes, on Peru Street in the heart of Salford.

The team joined members of MUSE, Salix, Salford City Council and Buttress for an official topping out event. John Hartnett, Managing Director, commented “We are thrilled to have reached the topping out point at Willohaus. This latest Passivhaus residential development follows on from our successful delivery of Greenhaus, a nine-storey Passivhaus certified development, and we’re proud to again be working with our long-standing clients, ECF and Salix Homes.” Read more here.

The team will provide pre-construction services ahead of building 256 new residential homes and five commercial units with ancillary public realm works in Ancoats, Manchester - the initial PCSA is valued at £1.6m.

Willohaus topping out ceremony

Pavilion at Farington Cricket is underway [ Our Construction team are currently delivering the new Farington Cricket facility for client Lancashire County Council and Lancashire County Cricket Club.

The team have already completed the professional pitch and training facility. From Spring 2025, the team will be looking to finalise the community pitch with the pavilion building set to be complete by the end of 2025.

Business

Delivering the Wright kind of care Wrightcare is our new care home division, which has been created to build, retain and operate new care homes across the North West in the coming years. Work to build the first home, a 68-bedroom residential home in Clitheroe, named Castlewood, is well underway with Construction and is due to be open in the Autumn of 2025. A second development located in Grimsargh, north of Preston, will be a 72-bedroom care home alongside 48 bungalows for the over 55s which will be developed and managed by Applethwaite. The aim is to build and operate five premium quality residential care facilities within the next seven years.

Clitheroe care home structures complete The Construction team are just over halfway through the build process, with the internal masonry and steel structures now complete, and roof works also nearing completion.

The completion of these works allows for the internal fit-out to begin, with the next milestone being the completion of the brick and stone facade. The two-storey building will include 68-bedrooms with private wet rooms, internal and external communal areas, a library or games room, bar area and a hair salon for residents as well as on-site parking provision.

Business

Civils deliver key work on Mersey Tunnels The Civil Engineering team is working with client, Merseytravel on two separate tunnel projects. The Queensway Tunnel works will deliver a new concrete and bronze monument and the Kingsway Tunnel works will deliver safety enhancements to existing access and emergency exits within the tunnel.

At the entrance to the Queensway Tunnel, the team commenced in mid January and have installed piled foundations which will eventually support the 60ft high structure and will be topped off with an illuminated bronze finial bowl. The Kingsway tunnel project has almost reached completion, during weekly night shifts the team built new safety layby areas into the Tunnel, which will enable safe escape in case of an emergency.

Salford Rise reaches major milestone The team recently started piling works for the near five-acre elevated walkway. With a built up site these works were both technical and delicate being within such close proximity to residential houses.

The new bridge and public realm project will remove physical barriers between the communities to the north of the Crescent area, replacing them with walking and cycling routes focused on accessibility and active travel and will significantly improve the connectivity between communities and Crescent Salford.

Kingsway Tunnel

Pontefract Park Reservoir completes The project for Wakefield Council via the YORcivils3 framework, included the delivery of a retaining wall to reinforce the reservoir banks as well as reconstructing and refurbishing surrounding footpaths.

The teams on-time delivery also enabled Pontefract Racecourse to complete preparations ready for the new horse racing season, which starts in April and also triggered a bonus payment.

Salford Rise

Contract win: We’re working in collaboration with Wigan Council to deliver a junction improvement scheme on the A580. The works are valued at £456,000 and the Civils team are expected to start on site in April 2025.

Pontefract Park Reservoir

Business

Eric meets future Water apprentices Eric recently visited our site at South Elmsall to meet future apprentices Ollie and Nina, who are both from Doncaster College and completing work placements with us.

Both students are excelling within their placements and are going to be progressing further with us, starting water civil engineering apprenticeships in September. The site is one of our flagships jobs and includes a traditional chemical dosing Water Industry National Environment Programme for the removal of phosphate but also additional storage with a wetlands nature based solution.

We have been working with Yorkshire Water on this project to reduce the level of phosphate within the treated waste water that goes back into the River Don. Whilst these works have been ongoing, the team are also building a natural solution based wetland. The purpose of this wetland is to reduce storm overflow discharges into Frickley Beck, which a tributary to the River Don. Using wetlands is a more carbon efficient method of storing excess rain water than traditional concrete tanks. We challenged the original design and implemented a lime stabilisation technology which significantly reduced the carbon footprint of the project as it saved the importation of 20,000m3 of fill material by utilising the existing material with the chemical mixture.

The project has successfully met its compliance targets and Eric was delighted to meet Ollie, Nina and the site team and was thrilled with the innovation on this £16m project. Whilst visiting the site, he planted the first plant that forms the new wetlands area which is being created and will continue to receive plants over the coming weeks, creating a natural habitat for storm overflow.

Mr Wright planting the first tree of the new wetland

Business

Applethwaite development update The team have now started on site at their Heckenhurst development in Worsthorne.

The site will be marketed as Meadow View and will be home to 36, two and three-bedroom new build homes.

The team are also due to start on site at Loveclough, Rossendale and the site will see the development of 51, three, four and five-bedroom homes, which will be marketed as Hillside.

We will be bringing you more updates in our next edition!

Business

Accrington Acorn Primary Care Centre Following the closure of the local community hospital, Accrington Victoria, our Healthcare Consultancy team have been working with East Lancashire Hospitals Trust to relocate its Minor Injuries Unit, X-ray diagnostics and Primary Care GP services into Accrington Acorn.

Temporary solutions have been put in place, while a capital variation, circa £2.5m, is designed to enable the services to be relocated into long-term suitable accommodation. Community Health Partnerships has commissioned the scheme and will be funding the capital variation and are expected to start on site early summer 2025.

New projects for Campus Living Villages Our Building Consultancy team have successfully secured several new projects for a valued client, Campus Living Villages.

The projects include installing guarding rails to 14 national sites. Replacing noncompliant fall arrest systems, a new facilities management office at South College, Durham and a site survey and report of the life cycle model at the same site. For the other two projects, the team have been commissioned to undertake the design, project management and contract administration of the work.

This additional work builds on the team’s previous success working with Campus Living Villages over the last few years.

Partnerships complete new nursery Healthcare Consultancy visit St Peter’s Health Centre The Healthcare Consultancy team have been working with Community Health Partnerships and the local Integrated Care Board to maximise the occupancy and utilisation of St Peter’s Health Centre, Burnley.

They’ve been commissioned to develop a scheme to take to tender, following the feasibility study undertaken, looking at options to make best use of the existing space and to fill the longterm voids of the property.

The scheme will consolidate space for physio services, while creating much needed modern, fit for purpose space for community mental health services. The scheme is expected to go live in late spring 2025.

Our Building Consultancy team have completed the delivery of a new singlestorey nursey building in Highfield, Fulwood. The £1.18m project saw our Building Consultancy team act as the lead consultant and appoint and manage the consultant design team, delivering services over the duration of the project from RIBA stage one to stage six. Alongside the nursery, the team delivered associated external play areas with covered canopies and secure fencing.

Business

Facilities Management colleague engagement day Ryan Pearce, Managing Director, hosted an Employee Engagement Day with 75 team members.

The purpose of this event was to help our employees understand our objectives for 2025 and how everyone can contribute to achieving them.

Framework wins for FM Our Facilities Management team have recently been appointed to two frameworks that are essential for their growth journey.

They’ve successfully re-established their position on the ESPO Total Facilities Management Framework and the Fusion21 Workplace and FM Framework, which is a significant milestone for them.

Colleagues actively participated in the day, sharing their thoughts on how we can succeed together. The event also featured representatives from the Group, including Nic Parkinson, Head of People, who provided feedback on the recent Employee Engagement Survey. Additionally, Scott Ellis from Group Health and Safety presented a safety update.

New Group Websites Our new set of Group websites are now live, these include Eric Wright Group, Maple Grove Developments and Partnerships and complement the existing Applethwaite website. The new website for Wrightcare is currently in development.

Thank you to a wide range of people from across the business who contributed to the process. The outcome is a fresh, dynamic set of websites which provides a clear and consistent window into our business(es).

If you have any feedback, please let the Marketing and Communications team know. We’d be happy to listen to your thoughts.

Corporate Templates A reminder that if you are looking for corporate templates, such as presentations, agendas and reports or our company logos you can find them in the Management System. We recently added in some Teams backgrounds which we have tested and are now available for everyone - we hope you find them useful. To add a background: From the pre-join screen, select more, video effects and settings, ​add new then apply.

Social Value

Civils deliver a range of social value across their projects As part of Civils’ social value offer on their Pontefract Park Reservoir project, the team hosted site visits for students studying civil engineering at Wakefield College to talk them through an active civils site and some of the challenges that can be faced. The team also visited the college to deliver industry presentations, with further events planned.

When Civils tendered for the Kingsway Tunnel project, they proposed to offer work experience placements. However, due to the work pattern being changed to night works this wasn’t possible. In order for us to deliver on our commitments to Merseytravel, the team have worked with one of our local subcontractors, Tarin Engineer, (who are providing fabrication and welding services on the scheme) to take a Fabrication & Welding T-Level placement student for 45 days from the City of Liverpool College.

At the Salford Rise scheme, the team worked closely with Salford City Council and the Salford Employment Hub to recruit local residents to work on the project. After successfully recruiting three residents who had all previously faced barriers to employment, the team are working with the individuals to build and enhance their skills.

Pontefract Park Reservoir - Wakefield College site visit

Salford Rise - Recruitment

Kingsway Tunnel - Work placement

Social Value

Construction headline sponsor at Seashell Trust event

Construction achieve Pledger status for Carbon Reduction Code

As part of our work delivering the design and build of Seashell Trust’s new Ged Mason Building, which is a specialist education building that will support students aged 16-25, our construction team have sponsored their Strictly Seashell event.

Commenting on the achievement, James Eager said “We are delighted to have been awarded Pledger Status on the Carbon Reduction Code. Our target is to reach net zero by 2030, which is ahead of the set 2045 target.

James Eager, Director said “Since starting on site, it is even more evident to us what a positive impact that the new state-of-the-art building will bring to the students and how it will better support their sensory and educational needs.

Our carbon reduction plan shows that they are currently on track to meet the interim target of a 65% reduction in emissions by 2026, and we are currently working on several projects to reduce emissions further, including increasing the number of renewables we use to power our sites, electrification of the car and van fleet and increasing our energy efficiency through certification to ISO 50001.”

“In addition to this, the new Ged Mason Building will provide greater opportunities and support for the students as they move from education into further study and the workplace. Social Value is a core part of who are and we're proud to continue our support for Seashell Trust and their upcoming events and ongoing activities.”

Peru Street host Green Jobs placement student Connor has joined the Peru Street site team, working with our subcontractor, Kinlan, for a four-month placement.

Connor is on the Green Jobs Pathfinder Programme which supports young people, aged 18-25, to get started in a career in growing areas of the green economy - focusing on careers in areas like retrofit, electric vehicles and renewables.

Connor

Social Value

Group volunteers plant Christmas trees in Lytham St Annes A team of colleagues from across the Group recently used their volunteering day to support our Biodiversity partner, the Wildlife Trust.

They planted donated Christmas trees at the North Promenade in Lytham St Annes beach. This work is important as the trees help to create several feet of sand in front of the dunes that wasn’t there before and stop hundreds of tonnes of sand from blowing away into the roads and into residents’ gardens. More importantly, they also form ‘soft sea defences’, offering protection against high waves, reducing the risk of flooding and provide extra wildlife habitat.

If you still have a volunteering day to use and are looking for volunteering opportunities, please email Scott Latta.

We’re sponsoring the Rosemere Cancer Charity walk again The Group are again sponsoring the Rosemere Cancer Charity ‘Walk in the Dark’ event. The walk will take place on Saturday 26th April.

The walk is around 11 miles from Chorley Hospital to Royal Preston Hospital, with all fundraising going towards state-ofthe-art equipment, research and training across Lancashire and South Cumbria for people affected by cancer.

As headline sponsor, we have been given 20 free places – if you would like to get involved please email Scott Latta.

Group volunteers at the beach

World of Work Experience We recently hosted our first 2025 cohort for our World of Work Experience (WOWEX). The group was made up of 14 students from Preston College, Runshaw College, Burnley College, Winstanley College, Hutton Grammar School and Sixth Form, Hulme Grammar School, St Michael's Church of England High School Chorley, Bishop Rawstorne Church of England Academy, St Aidens High School, Hope Academy and Cardinal Newman College Preston.

The students spent the week immersed in our different divisional operations, experiencing challenges and tasks from planning, bid writing, design management, quantity surveying, site management, programme planning, risk registers and risk assessments, and engineering.

Thank you to everyone for their time and support during the programme.

Wowex Cohort

People

Sophie Rowe Nick Hague speaks on Lancashire Development passes apprenticeship panel Hosted by Place North West, the event covering a wide ranging topics from cyber security to education skills.

Congratulations to Sophie Rowe, Senior Compliance Co-ordinator who has recently passed her apprenticeship with a Distinction.

As a panellist, Nick talked about plans for the T2000 training centre in Blackburn for UCLAN, with Maple Grove assisting Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council. The plans will regenerate an unloved area of the town centre and deliver a state-of-the-art facility, bringing together thousands of students, both teenagers and mature, as businesses send employees there for specific training.

Sophie completed the level 5 apprenticeship for Operations/ Departmental Manager in 18 months and covered modules such as types of teams, learning and communication skills and project management.

Christmas closure 2025

World Sleep Day

To help with your planning, here are the confirmed Christmas closure dates. We will close on Tuesday 23 December 2025 and return to work on Monday 5 January 2026.

Along with diet and exercise, sleep is one of the 3 pillars of health. Poor sleep has been linked with negative effects on hormone levels, physical performance, and brain function. It has also been linked to obesity and an increased risk of diseases. Good quality sleep can help you maintain a healthy weight, avoid disease, and improve your health. March will see us raise awareness of issues that affect our sleep and provide tips on how to improve health and wellbeing.

This leaves five days to account for, which we understand is a lot from your holiday entitlement. We have agreed to gift everyone one day – Friday 2 January 2026, leaving four days to save for Christmas.

For those who are part time and don’t work Fridays or those who normally work over Christmas, your leave will be adjusted accordingly.

Annual Leave

Bank Holiday

Gifted Day

People

Service celebrations Congratulations and thank you to our colleagues who are celebrating service anniversaries.

5 Years Service Matthew Eckersley - Quantity Surveyor - EWC Lisa Milner - Framework Manager - EWW Ben Sidwell - Supervisor - EWW Scott Dean - Supervisor - EWW Steve Styan - Tutor - Water Park Stephanie Raikes - Senior Project Manager - EWFM Ben Beavers - Mechanical Fitters Mate - EWW

25 Years Service Phil Marsden - Senior Quantity Surveyor - EWC Barrie Balaam - Site Manager - EWC

10 Years Service Stephen Knowles - Framework & Relationship Manager - EWC Deborah Rawlinson - Property Solicitor - EWG Brad Scales - Project Manager - EWW John Hartnett - Managing Director - EWC/COO - EWG

Matthew Eckersley

Stephen Knowles

John Hartnett

Gill Worthington

15 Years Service Gary Smith - Mobile Site Supervisor - EWFM 20 Years Service Gill Worthington - Commercial Assistant - EWW Marc Williamson - Planner - EWC Andy Woods - Site Manager - EWC

A huge welcome to our new colleagues across the Group Eric Wright Group Sophie Dean - People Administrator Eric Wright Water Chris McGhee - Commissioning Engineer Daniel Buckley - Trainee Mechanical Engineer Martin Hulley - Commissioning Engineer Liam Ellison - Electrical Supervisor Jake Sands - Commissioning Engineer Kyle Crossley - Electrical Supervisor Andrew Taylor - Project Engineer (Electrical) Brendan O'Toole - Apprentice Mechanical Fitter Colin Garrett - Electrician Darrell Smith - Electrician Eric Wright Facilities Management Daniel Lomax - Facilities Manager Karl Power - Facilities Manager Raven Fogg - Cleaning Operative Philippa Reeves-Murray - Coffee Shop Assistant Hannah Soakell - Cleaning Operative Joe Holland - Site Supervisor Barry Kilby - Head of Projects

Eric Wright Construction Jason Case - Project Quantity Surveyor Michael Prudham - Design Manager Water Park Janet Rudd - Head Chef Frederick Pearson - Trainee Tutor Eloise Lake - Trainee Tutor Jenny Allen - Associate Tutor Applethwaite Amanda Robinson - Sales Advisor Joe Caunce - Housing Manager Stephen McGuirk - Forklift Driver Eric Wright Civil Engineering Jennifer Cooper - Design Manager Dominic Tierney - Contracts Manager

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Please contact us with any news you’d like to see in the next update: ewgcomms@ericwright.co.uk

Written and designed by Amy and Michelle

Thank you