The Hull-founded engineering firm has bought a second site to take on larger fabrication work. For founder Wayne Quinn, the expansion is also about giving people from the workshop floor to the boardroom a hand in building the business.
-- PEMEC is expanding its engineering and fabrication operations in Hull after buying an 18,000 sq ft second site on Thomas Street. The former Beaumont House, now renamed PEMEC House, brings a dedicated fabrication workshop, offices and a secure materials yard together at a site the company owns. The investment gives the Hull-founded business more room to fabricate large assemblies for industrial projects across the UK.
The widest door at PEMEC House measures six metres. For the people in the workshop, that means a team can build a larger assembly indoors and move it out whole. For a customer operating a factory or an energy centre, it means more work can potentially be completed in Hull before the equipment arrives on a site where space is limited and downtime is expensive. The extra space gives PEMEC more control over where the work happens, how it is prepared and what arrives ready to install.
For founder and chief executive Wayne Quinn, the purchase also brings a question about people into focus. As the company takes on more complex work, how does it give the person on their first week in the workshop the same permission to think about how the business could work better as the people sitting in the boardroom?
Quinn’s first lift to work was a tractor. Growing up in Amcotts, near Scunthorpe, he spent weekends and school holidays picking potatoes, peas and strawberries and baling straw. If he missed the tractor, he missed the day’s pay. At 16, he left school for an apprenticeship that paid £50 a week. That was his way into engineering, a career that took him to both sides of industrial projects, working with clients and contractors before founding PEMEC in Hull in 2016.
In Apprentice to Entrepreneur, Quinn describes how shy he was when he was young and how often he held back when he wanted to speak up. “It wasn’t that the fear suddenly disappeared,” he recalls. “It was more that I decided I wasn’t going to let it make my decisions for me.”
That part of his story has a bearing on the kind of company he wants to build. A new starter might see a problem that someone more experienced has walked past a dozen times. A site labourer might know why the delivery plan will jam up as soon as two crews need the same access route. A fabricator might see a simpler way to prepare an assembly for installation. Whether any of those ideas makes it into the plan depends on how easy it is to raise them and how willing the people making the decisions are to listen.
“You don’t build an empire on your own,” Quinn says. At PEMEC, that entrepreneurial mindset is meant to apply from site labourer to chief executive. The person closest to the work can raise an issue and suggest a change. The people responsible for the job can test it against the design, safety requirements, quality standards and customer programme. A director’s job in that process is to give the idea a fair hearing and make sure the right people can act on it.
At a UK semiconductor manufacturing facility, PEMEC replaced chillers and pump sets with larger units and installed the connecting pipework. The team had restricted space to work in and used a compact spider crane to lift and position the equipment. The chiller changeover and associated pipework were planned within a four-week window. PEMEC reports that the overall project finished on time and within budget.
On a district heating project, the company delivered the mechanical installation for a low-carbon energy centre, including heat pumps, pipework, steelwork and fire-rated ductwork. The team fabricated sections in advance and took the final measurements on site before completing the connections. That reduced the risk of rework and took the project through testing to a documented handover. It is the kind of job where a decision made in the workshop can save a crew time on site weeks later.
At a chemical manufacturer, PEMEC upgraded the systems that move, sieve and dose powdered materials inside a working factory. The team coordinated demolition, structural steelwork, mechanical installation, pipework and electrical work across several floors with restricted access. The customer subsequently awarded PEMEC further work on a heat exchanger installation and an ammonia recovery project.
Those jobs show the range of experience the company is building on in Hull. A workshop manager, a procurement specialist and a site supervisor will each see a different part of the same problem. Bringing them into the conversation early can change how an assembly is designed, when it is built and how it gets into the building. The new site gives those teams more scope to put that judgement to work before they reach the customer’s gate.
Manufacturing and engineering account for more than 16% of jobs across Hull and East Yorkshire. The region’s employers make everything from food and construction products to turbines. A school leaver can still pass the same factory gate every day without knowing what the people inside do, how they got their first job or where it might lead.
Quinn’s own route from apprentice to entrepreneur shapes how PEMEC looks at home-grown talent. An apprenticeship can give someone a wage and a trade. The years that follow can give them the chance to run a crew, manage a contract, lead an operation or start a business. Along the way, an experienced colleague can explain why a particular check matters, show a new starter how to spot a mistake before it becomes expensive and give them the confidence to speak up when they see one themselves.
For PEMEC, flying the flag for Hull and the North starts with what it chooses to build here. Customers across the UK get access to engineering and fabrication expertise based in the city. People starting out locally can see a career that might begin on a workshop floor and take them into project leadership or the boardroom. Quinn’s own career started with someone giving a 16-year-old a paid chance to learn. The ambition behind the expansion is to build a business where the next person through the workshop door can see how far that first chance might take them.
About PEMEC
PEM Engineering & Construction Limited is a Hull-founded company delivering engineering, fabrication and construction projects across the UK. Its teams work from early engineering and off-site fabrication through to installation, testing and handover. PEMEC House is on Thomas Street, Hull. pemec.co.uk
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