Dundee construction start-up targets £2m turnover

A Dundee construction business which formed under two years ago is staffing up as it hopes to achieve sales of £2 million this year.

Alpha Projects (Scotland) Ltd is a partnership between Forfar-based Paul Cortese and Kevin Brown, from Dundee.

Established in July 2017, the West Pitkerro Industrial Estate company has achieved revenue of £1m in the first six months of its current financial year.

The firm, which also has an office in Aberdeen, is a building contractor carrying out a mixture of residential, commercial and local authority work. It specialises in refurbishments, extension projects, joinery work and office fit outs.

Mr Cortese said: “We worked together for an Aberdeen company for seven years but, given where we both live, decided to set up our own business in Dundee.

“We struggled to trade in the first six months in the Tayside area – we’d been in Aberdeen so long, we didn’t have the connections. So we set up an Aberdeen office as well.

“I’m pleased to say that we overcame our initial difficulties in Tayside and are now we are working with several good architects in Dundee and Angus.

“Aberdeen’s also doing well and we now have a healthy order book in both locations.”

The firm employs 13 staff across the two sites and is planning to add an additional three employees in the coming weeks.

Next year Mr Cortese said the company hopes to employ 20 people and reach sales of £4m.

“We have grown quickly but it was part of our business plan to do these numbers,” he said.

“We just knew that if we had a chance, we could do it. It was all about finding opportunities, winning work and delivering the projects.

“Based on the work we have booked this summer we should reach £2m by the end of our financial year in October.

“We are hoping to double that to £4m next year. Once we get there we would like to be a team of around 20 people.”

credit to: The Courier and Rob McLaren