The increasing demand for modular construction solutions in the UK has prompted Seven Oaks Timber Frame, part of construction company JG Hale Construction, to be turned into a separate limited company and rebranded as Seven Oaks Modular. The new company will be managed by Charlotte Hale, with Jonathan Hale, chairman of JG Hale Construction, becoming its chairman.

Seven Oaks has an order book in excess of £10.5 million with tier one contractors and large property developers, anticipating year-on-year growth of more than 15%. This growth is partly driven by government initiatives to build more homes quickly.

Modular construction cuts time on site to almost half, meaning that even though components and materials are more expensive than traditional ones, the overall cost is the same, if not cheaper. It also incorporates greater quality and precision from the factory installed components and material, matching customer expectations, end user and market requirements.

Seven Oaks Modular is extending its product offering to incorporate windows, doors and external cladding into its prefabricated timber frame panels, with a plan to offer fully modular volumetric buildings in the future. It has also invested in research into developing bathroom and kitchen pods, CLT and other modular renewable products and solutions.

Moreover, the company will also invest £2 million in expanding its production facilities and increasing the size of its workforce. Its plans include moving into new premises, increasing the company’s capacity threefold from 1,000 homes per year to 3,000 per year.

“We’ve listened to our customers and, with an evidently increased demand for offsite manufacturing, we’ve decided to introduce a more modular approach to our product offerings. There is a big housing shortage in the UK and this approach has the potential to help solve that in a quicker and more efficient way,” said Charlotte Hale, manager of Seven Oaks Modular.