THE Pyeroy Group, based in Gateshead, has won contracts worth nearly £4m on three construction projects due to start soon.

The three tenders take the group's construction business through the £10m barrier for the first time this year.

New work includes a £1.7m scheme to provide a dementia care facility at Brunswick, in Newcastle, for the Dementia Care partnership, an NHS organisation.

Work on the 38-week project to provide a two-storey building that will incorporate glass curtain walling will begin at the end of the month.

In Sunderland, Pyeroy has recently started work on a £1.2m project to extend a church and create a neighbourhood centre.

The 40-week project is being undertaken at St Luke's Church.

Pyeroy has also secured a £1m order from Gateshead Borough Council for the construction of a SureStart facility at Felling.

Work on the 40-week project will begin in July and provide a headquarters for a range of schemes helping families with young children.

Paul Robinson, Pyeroy construction director, said: "These latest contract wins have built on our earlier successes and we now have a very strong order book across a range of public sector, residential and other commercial property developments.

"Our business tends to be concentrated in the region and we have benefited from a very buoyant construction sector - the challenge now is to maintain the progress we have made."

Pyeroy's construction business forms part of a group that includes industrial and marine protective coatings, decorative, scaffolding and technical services divisions. The company employs 700 people from its headquarters in Gateshead and other regional offices around the country.

Published: 22/06/2004