David Harris, managing director at Premier Modular – a Yorkshire-based offsite modular building specialist, chats to Andrew Palmer about creating sustainable spaces, which will stand the test of time.

Investing in its team’s training is fundamental to Premier’s growth. By regularly training their team, Premier turns an already skilled team into one which gives them the edge over their competitors. People make the difference.


Q: Could you tell us a little bit more about Premier Modular’s roots?

A: Premier Modular is a highly-focused offsite modular building specialist, creating sustainable spaces that enable a better tomorrow, every day, for generations to come.

In 1956, at the very beginning of its journey, Premier operated in a small factory in Blackburn as a timber garage manufacturer. It grew from there, and by the early 1960s, it had expanded into building extensions for the education and healthcare sectors. In 1968, it began manufacturing modular buildings.

Since then, Premier Modular has continued to grow, and it is now widely recognised as one of the UK’s leading modular building specialists, providing first-class, bespoke, temporary and permanent solutions for public and private sector clients.

Q: Can you tell us about any exciting projects you’ve led in the North?

A: One exciting project we’re currently working on in the Leeds area is for Luminate Printworks. In just four months, we’re designing and delivering a new education facility that’s over 1,150m2 – due to complete in January 2023. Modules were installed in October 2022, taking just four days.

The Luminate scheme is incredibly technical. Premier constructed a steel gantry, installing the building above, and the original building is listed, so working closely with the school and local heritage teams has been critical.

As a Yorkshire-based business, Luminate Printworks is a special project for our whole team, and it’s a delight to play our part in this much-needed college from concept to installation.

Another Yorkshire-based project, also in Leeds, is Roundhay Primary School. As one of Leeds’ first ever all-through (4-18 years) schools, we designed, delivered and installed a bespoke, hybrid education solution, which was two storeys, covering 2,360m2.
Roundhay Primary School needed its new campus urgently to meet rising demand, which meant this was a fast build, and Premier was able to take the project from concept to completion in just 37 weeks.

Q: How are you leading sustainable values and initiatives across the North?

A: Sustainability is critical to ensure all of our buildings perform – both now and for future generations. As a business, we’re committed to being net zero in operation by 2035.

Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do – our purpose is about creating sustainable spaces for people to live, learn, work and take care of others.

It’s not just talk – it’s in everything we do. We can give you so many examples of projects that are focused on helping our clients to achieve net zero targets, with innovative solutions that minimise carbon emissions and maximise energy efficiency.

Q: How can you support the North on its journey to net zero carbon with your building projects?

A: Aligned with our ongoing drive for sustainability in the industry, Premier Modular Group recently acquired Net Zero Buildings – a company that specialises in delivering sustainable spaces that reduce the impact of construction on our environment.

Across the industry, there are so many businesses and people ‘talking’ about net zero and sustainability, but few are actually doing anything about it. Net Zero Buildings is taking that challenge on with building technology that makes a real difference for future generations. We’ve just handed over two schemes, which are both net zero in operation: Treetops Free School and Hart School. Treetops was a UK first; the Department for Education’s first net zero pathfinder school.

As a business, we have also recently launched our ‘carbon calculator’, which is designed to help our clients reduce the operational carbon of their buildings. This was launched initially with our temporary solutions, and it’s been extremely well-received.

Q: How are you investing in skills and training in your local area?

A: Our people – and the family culture they bring – drive the pace, agility, first-class product development and process innovation we’re recognised for.
Everything starts with our people – we wouldn’t be where we are today without them and their can-do attitudes, which really shone throughout the COVID pandemic. Investing in our people – particularly in local people who want to develop their skills and remain in the area – is key to maintaining that.

As we grow, that investment is clear at every level, helping to build skillsets and capabilities throughout the business – for example, through MBAs, leadership development, CIPS courses, technical degree support, along with a myriad of methods to develop our people’s manufacturing skills.

At the beginning of 2022, we launched our ‘Premier Academy’, which has enabled us to triple our annual apprentice intake and train more local people in highly sought-after construction industry skills. As the skills are highly transferrable and therefore bankable, we also have to work hard to keep them in the business.

Q: What are your ambitions as you look to the next few years?

We’re set on remaining in the top three industry players, by championing Yorkshire’s construction talent pool and continuing to invest in our whole team’s growth.

We’re also targeting significant expansion into Europe, and pushing to become an industry leader on sustainability and net zero solutions.