Fusion Celebrates 20 years in Offsite
Fusion Building Systems is celebrating 20 years of offsite construction excellence, building more light steel frame superstructures over the past two decades than probably any other supplier.
Fusion was founded in Ireland in 2000 when a construction entrepreneur wanted to find a way of delivering high quality housing at speed, with less reliance on labour and the weather. In 2010, the Company was acquired by Salvesen Insulated Frames Ltd, relocated to Northampton and since then, has retained its position at the forefront of the offsite construction sector.
Over the past two decades Fusion has designed, engineered, manufactured and built light steel frame superstructures for more than 25 schools, 2,000 care home beds, 3,000 residential housing units, 4,000 apartments and 12,000 student beds. Its client portfolio has also grown exponentially, and its offsite excellence has been recognised by such prestigious award programmes as Construction News and the Offsite Construction Awards.
Now as the construction industry begins to embrace a digital future and the more widespread adoption of MMC and design for manufacturing principles, Fusion continues to drive change. Its Directors are proud to sit on the boards and steering committees for a number of influential Government and industry bodies.
Fusion Director Mike Fairey, said: “I’m proud of our legacy in the offsite sector. We’ve built numerous structures across many sectors and continue to use the knowledge we’ve gained to improve our products and processes. We’ve seen a lot of change over the past 20 years, though it’s probably only since around 2015 that we’ve seen offsite methods of construction really begin to push towards centre stage for the construction industry as a whole.”
Fusion’s work over the past 20 years has included urban regeneration projects, historical renovations, off-the-shelf school construction system and product focused ‘brand’ solutions for some of the UK’s largest contractors and developers. Most recently, Fusion has completed a 2,000 bed student accommodation project for Balfour Beatty at The University of Sussex believed to be one of the largest light steel frame projects undertaken.
“This is an extremely exciting time to be in the offsite sector, adds Mike. “We’re now talking about the role technology has to play as part of the ‘Golden Thread’ for MMC, and the prospect of shifting the construction industry’s mindset from a project-led approach to one which is centred on the product. These are changes I think we’ll be seeing accelerate over the next five years, paving the way for our next 20 years in the industry.”
