MTX is a family-owned organisation whose history dates back nearly 40 years. In 2023 the company is forecasting revenues of over £100 million, with the majority of its work coming from the NHS. The NHS certainly needs the support.
“As we hear reported daily, there are significant demands on the NHS to serve patients,” says David Hartley, MTX’s Managing Director. “There are constant references to bed pressure from an ageing population and the operations backlog from Covid. It has all created a perfect storm for a backlog.”
MTX is established to aid the NHS in meeting that backlog by continuing to provide the NHS with state-of-the-art, fit-for-purpose, regulations and standards-compliant facilities that are comparable in performance to traditional building structures while adopting modern methods of construction aligned with government directives.
“Adopting modern construction methods reduces waste, improves quality, and reduces our impact on operational estates,” says Hartley. “It is a win-win situation.”
The majority of MTX’s work is awarded through approved frameworks, allowing the firm to often be involved from the early inception of its projects. At this point, MTX will provide free support to get a construction project off the ground, with clients working in conjunction with MTX’s own consultants and design teams.
“We will work to develop designs, ultimately going into the construction and delivery of the building,” Hartley says.
MTX is a big company, but as a family-owned firm, it maintains a competitive level of agility, particularly due to the modern methods of construction (MMC) it brings to bear on its projects.
“People assume with any MMC project the selling point is speed, and our clients invest in that mindset on every project we are involved in,” Hartley says. “Our clients adopt that approach which allows programs to be developed and achieved very quickly, unlike in the traditional construction sector where the processes can be quite cumbersome.”
But while the association with speed is a favourable one, there are still some preconceptions about modular construction that Hartley is keen to dispel.
“There continues to be, in certain camps, a misunderstanding in terms of what modular construction and modern methods of construction can deliver. There are still suspicions,” he acknowledges. “The reality is that the construction industry cannot be associated in any way with the prefabricated buildings in the 1970s. Regulations compliance across the board from fire to structural to building services compliance is absolutely essential. We are still constructing our buildings with steel, utilising concrete floors, the cladding options are endless.”
Often MTX uses the same materials and fittings as traditionally constructed buildings, and it meets the same standards as any building in areas such as fire safety and acoustics.
“It is a different way, not a substandard way,” Hartley emphasises.
Part of the Framework
This approach is why the Crown Commercial Service has selected MTX as a supplier for its £10 billion Offsite Construction Solutions Framework, expanding the premanufactured building solutions currently available to public sector buyers. Being part of this framework means MTX is eligible to supply buildings manufactured off-site for both the healthcare and education sectors. MTX brings a proud track record and a wealth of experience to bear on these projects.
“We have got a unique and enviable history. We have worked in this sector for four decades and with that comes a lot of autonomy among our integrated teams in-house,” Hartley says. “These teams have been with us throughout our journey.”
The same is true of MTX’s board of directors. Hartley himself has been with the business for 30 years and many of his fellow directors have been involved in the company since its conception.
“A huge number of lessons have been learned, knowledge gained, and we have a large experience portfolio,” Harley says. “On every project, we continue to learn and do things better.”
Building Talent
MTX is facing no shortage of work in the pipeline, Hartley is keen to point out that there is plenty of work out there.
“The construction industry and the healthcare sector are very buoyant at the moment,” he says. “There is a lot of work, a new hospital program we are embarking on, and it is an exciting time. The 
challenge is people.”
Finding people with the right skills in the construction sector is an industry-wide problem, and one MTX is managing by constantly appointing new apprenticeships through its flagship apprenticeship scheme.
“We need project managers, quantity surveyors, and good quality site project teams to deliver these projects,” Hartley insists. “Especially off the back of Covid there is this assumption everyone wants to work from home and close to home, and construction projects are scattered all over the country.”
Fortunately, as a company utilising modern methods of construction, MTX has a valuable edge on that front.
“In terms of pre-manufactured value, you are looking at upwards of 60% of the building being constructed away from the site in a factory environment,” Hartley points out. “So, unlike a traditional construction site, we have factories throughout the UK with local workforces. Then the components are shipped to the site for assembly. That has benefits in retaining people.”
At the same time, once the components have been shipped to the site, MTX makes a point of providing work to people local to its construction sites.
“This supports our CSR policies,” Hartley says. “We attend job fairs local to our sites. We encourage the employment of the local trades in the local area of all our projects.”
MTX has established a pipeline to take people from college courses through to being nurtured within the company itself.
“We have made a huge investment in that program to support our clients in providing projects seamlessly, on time, greener, better and faster,” Hartley says.
Greener Builds
As well as supporting local communities by bringing them work, MTX also prioritises protecting the local environment through its construction projects.
“In terms of sustainability across all of our projects, we are rated very good or excellent,” Hartley says.
While on each project MTX has to work within the confines of what has been planned and built before they were involved, sustainability is a core value across all its projects.
“As a business, we are targeting net zero by 2035,” Hartley tells us. “We are already on that journey, appointing engineering consultancy firm RSK to support us. We are actively, and have been for several years, monitoring our mileage and our energy consumption in terms of our operational sites, water consumption, and electrical consumption.”
This policy is in place across all MTX’s sites. Instead of diesel, the construction company uses rehydrated oil, and 76% of its fleet is made up of electric vehicles.
“We have gone a long way to support our sustainability goals,” Hartley says. “We have a bright future, particularly with the perfect timing of several contributing factors supporting our business model.”
The company has been appointed to the top 100 fastest-growing organisations in the country, the 36th out of 100 privately owned companies, and sixth out of companies in the Northwest. It positions MTX well to meet the needs of an NHS still dealing with the continued backlog of Covid.
“As a business, we are well-placed to support that,” says Hartley. “We are seeing a huge amount of business.”
