Ogilvie Construction News
Company news and updates

Kids from Carrongrange School in Falkirk managed to raise £620 for Five Sisters Zoo in West Lothian with support from Hub East Central Scotland and Ogilvie Construction.

The pupils arranged a coffee morning event which raised £120 and hub ECS and Ogilvie, who are constructing the new Carrongrange school building, each donated £250 to support the initiative.  

The new school building is due to open soon and will offer 190 pupils a state of the art learning environment.

Five Sisters Zoo is non-profit enterprise with a collection of over 180 different species of mammals birds and reptiles.  A large part of the zoo’s focus is to provide a home for three bears and four lions who were rescued from lives performing in travelling circuses.

Gary Bushnell, Chief Executive, hub East Central Scotland said:

“We are delighted to support the pupils at the school in their efforts to raise money for the zoo and look forward to presenting them with a fantastic new school building in the near future”

Donald MacDonald, Managing Director, Ogilvie Construction added: 

“We work hard to support local communities on all of our projects and it was a pleasure to donate to the campaign organised by the children at Carrongrange. We have constructed a high-quality building which will meet their specific needs for the future.” 

Ogilvie Construction has achieved its fourth successive Gold Award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) in this year’s Occupational Health & Safety Awards.

The award was achieved during a special year for the family-safety charity, as it celebrates its centenary.

Through the scheme, which is open to businesses and organisations of all types and sizes from across the UK and overseas, judges consider entrants' overarching occupational health and safety management systems, including practices such as leadership and workforce involvement.

Donald MacDonald, Managing Director, Ogilvie Construction, said: “This award once again recognises our commitment to maintaining consistently high standards of health and safety across all areas of our operations.  Safety is at the heart of everything that we do and we are delighted to receive another gold award.” 

Julia Small, RoSPA's head of awards and events, said: "The RoSPA Awards are the most prestigious in the world of occupational health and safety and held in high regard around the world, as winning one demonstrates an organisation’s commitment to maintaining an excellent health and safety record. Achieving the standard required is no mean feat.

“This is a special year in the history of RoSPA and we congratulate all of our winners in this, our centenary year.” 

Ogilvie Construction is part of the Ogilvie Group, one of Scotland's most consistently successful family owned businesses.  The company is over 60 years old and employs over 400 people across its various business operations. 

Take a looking at this amazing time-lapse footage of the progress being made over the last 15 months on Ogilvie's Motel One project - soon to be Scotland's biggest hotel.

Ogilvie Construction has reached a milestone in the construction of the new £22 million hotel for Motel One Group in Oswald Street, Glasgow, with the completion of the roof deck and concrete frame.

Members of the construction and design team celebrated the achievement with a “topping out” ceremony on the roof of the new building.

With 374 rooms, the new hotel will be one of the largest in Scotland and the first in Glasgow for the European budget designer brand. It will open in 2018 and combines high quality product design with an excellent location and attractive pricing.

Bob Gray, Construction Director, Ogilvie Construction, said:

“We are delighted to have reached this key milestone and are working closely with Motel One to deliver their vision for a new hotel in the centre of Glasgow. Constructed to the highest standards, the building combines the use of high quality materials with our extensive experience and expertise in the hotel and leisure sector.”

The Glasgow project is Ogilvie’s second for Motel One after the company built the prestigious Motel One hotel building on Princes Street in Edinburgh, which opened in 2014.  

Motel One operates 56 hotels across Europe with more than 15,165 rooms and has ambitious plans to expand their network to 74 hotels with 18,000 rooms.

Ogilvie Construction is part of the Ogilvie Group is one of Scotland’s most consistently successful family owned businesses.  The company is over 60 years old and employs more than 450 people across its various business operations in the UK. 

Ogilvie Construction has been awarded a £4 million contract to build 40 new homes in Dundee for Hillcrest Housing Association.

The development will create new social housing for the city on vacant land on Eliza Street and comprises 36 flats and 4 semi-detached homes. Work is due to start on site at the end of July and complete in summer 2018.

All the homes will be built to the Greener Homes Innovation Scheme standard using modern sustainable construction methods and creating fuel efficient homes that reduce energy bills.

Donald MacDonald, Managing Director, Ogilvie Construction, said:

“We are delighted to have been chosen to build the new homes and will be working closely with Hillcrest Housing Association to deliver high quality homes for their future tenants. Throughout the project our team will engage with the local community to consider their needs and ensure the minimum disruption in the immediate area.”

David Zwirlein, Director of Development and New Business, Hillcrest Group, said: 

“Working with Ogilvie Construction to deliver 40 new homes in Dundee continues our commitment to providing much needed affordable housing in the city.  Providing energy efficient homes is always a priority for us to help reduce the cost for tenants once they have moved in.  We’re looking forward to getting started on the site and watching the project come together.”

Ogilvie Construction is part of the Ogilvie Group, one of Scotland's most consistently successful family owned businesses.  The company is over 60 years old and employs over 450 people across its various business operations. 

Construction Director Bob Gray is running three marathons in just five weeks to raise funds for The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice in Glasgow. Starting with the London Marathon on the 23rd April, Bob will also run the Stirling and Edinburgh Marathons in the following weeks. 

Bob’s sister sadly passed away in November 2013 from cancer and charities like TPPWH give fantastic support to the patients, as well as their family and friends. The hospice looks after 1,200 patients every year and relies on more than £3million in donations to maintain this level of care.

To support Bob’s efforts, you can donate via his Just Giving page here. Any donation, large or small, will be greatly received and help the hospice to continue its fantastic work. 

Bob’s marathons:

London – 23rd April
Stirling – 21st May
Edinburgh – 28th May

Ogilvie Construction are delighted to be working with Robert Gordon University to offer industry work placements to some of its students. The article below from the RGU website explains more about the scheme and how construction companies can help to fill the skills gap.

Robert Gordon University (RGU) has teamed up with a Scottish construction company to offer students paid employment opportunities.

Ogilvie Construction Ltd is currently hosting Stage 2 Construction Management student Patrycja Linka to give her valuable paid work experience relating to her studies.

Former-Construction management subject leader at RGU, Rob Leslie, is urging more companies to follow the example in order to help tackle the skills shortage the industry is facing and ensure students have extensive practical experience to complement their qualification when they graduate.

RGU already works with a wide variety of companies to provide students with a placement opportunity during their third year, which often leads to longer-term employment.

Ogilvie Construction has invested £65,000 in two new excavators as part of a programme to upgrade machinery to meet growth plans.

Groundworks Manager, Robbie Reilly and Senior Buyer, Lauren Kidd, were on hand this week to take delivery of the new machines at the company’s headquarters in Stirling. 

The two JCB excavators will be brought into service immediately to meet current high demand. Ogilvie’s teams are working on a range of projects across Scotland including new student accommodation, schools and hotels.

Donald MacDonald, Managing Director, Ogilvie Construction said:

“It is essential that our teams are properly equipped to deliver high quality buildings on time and budget for our clients. The new excavators are part of our continued investment in equipment and training to ensure that we consistently meet the high standards that our customers expect.  Our on-site teams operate with over 150 hourly paid employees, rather than relying heavily on sub-contractors, with a total focus on quality.  

“Our order book remains strong and we expect to see continued steady growth in operations over the next year.” 

Ogilvie Construction is part of the Ogilvie Group, one of Scotland's most consistently successful family owned businesses.  The company is over 60 years old and employs over 450 people across its various business operations.

With the final containers in place and the finishing touches being made to the True Glasgow student accommodation project, Global Construction Review took a look at the unique construction method that has reduces build time and improves health safety. The full article can be read below:

A new high-end student accommodation is nearing completion in Glasgow made from pre-manufactured steel boxes made and fitted out completely in China.

Called “True Glasgow West End”, the 592-room complex taking shape on a former industrial site by the River Clyde borrows both its branding approach and luxury standards from the hotel business.

At a time when the UK construction industry is under pressure to modernise with pre-manufacturing techniques, its developer says the modular approach isn’t cheaper, but does cut build time by up to 20%, improves health and safety, and ensures finished quality as predictably as car manufacturing.

Everything in the room is sourced and fitted by China International Marine Containers (CIMC) except the TV and the bed mattress, which are added later.

“The bed is in, the flooring is in, the curtains are in, the desk is in, the lights are in, even the desk chair and the waste-paper bin,” said Marc Carter, managing director of developer True Student Ltd. “Everything is included. When the modules arrive we fit a mattress made in the UK and we fit a TV, because that’s too fragile to ship.”

Successful topping out event for new 237-bed purpose-built student accommodation development, The Old Printworks, Edinburgh, on track and on budget for opening in August 2017.

Crosslane Student Developments, part of the Crosslane Group, celebrated the topping out event of The Old Printworks development at 20 Bernard Terrace, Edinburgh, on 29 March 2017. The ceremony was conducted by Jon Stuart, Director of Crosslane Student Developments and Grier Edmead, Contracts Manager, Ogilvie Construction. The total development value of the property is approximately £31 million.

Work on site commenced in January 2016 to develop a new, purpose-built, high specification, city centre scheme, comprising 44 studios and 193 cluster flat bedrooms ranging from three to nine bed clusters. In addition, there will be high quality communal facilities including a common room, meeting space, laundry facilities, gym and bike storage.

The high specification scheme, due for completion in August 2017 in time for the 2017/2018 academic year, is in an ideal location amidst the popular student hub of Edinburgh, being just a short walk to the University of Edinburgh campus and close to the historic Royal Mile, in the heart of the city centre.